In Memory of Pompi

Pompette Kartoffelpuffer, aka "Pompi" aka "doodle" was an unsociable cat. You were only allowed to touch her on the head, neck or back. Never, ever touch her tail. She would scratch or bite anybody who violated that rule, and especially knew when she could get away with scratching children. Children were fascinated with her, probably because she was so fluffy and soft looking.

She preferred to stay outside all the time, except when it was freezing or heavy rain outside. She would come inside only to eat, then meow a request to open the door so she could go back outside.

She was always finicky about eating, and was always skinny under all that fur. When I gave her a flea bath once each summer, I was always surprised at how thin she was.

Over the last two weeks she was more finicky than ever. She seemed to be thirsty all the time, and only wanted to sleep in one of her hiding places in the yard. I found her several times, picked her up gently and carried her to the water and food dishes. She would drink some water and then wobble off to another hiding place.

About four days ago she disappeared. I have searched all of her known hiding places to no avail. The last time I saw her I didn't understand how she had enough strength to wobble away like that, so I'm certain she died in her sleep in some secret hiding place. She was about 18 years old.

When I Am Grown and Can Have What I Please...

Last night I came home from work starving, and in desperate need of a bath. This has frequently been a problem for me since I like to soak in the bath for an hour or more, coordinating with dinner preparation is always difficult. But last night was different. Monya suggested that she bring my dinner into the bathroom and let me eat it whilst soaking in the tub.

It sounded gross to me, but I was hungry, so I acceded to the offer. She brought a plastic plate containing three sausage patties, three pancakes made with coconut milk and drenched in home-made maple syrup, and a plastic sippie-cup full of orange juice. I quickly discovered that the angle of the tub back-rest made it difficult to eat neatly. The hot syrup was thin and easily ran down my chin. But I noted consciously to myself that I was not wearing a silk tie, or even a clean white ironed shirt, so I just stuffed the food into my mouth and happily let the drips fall where they may. When I was done, I simply scooted down into the hot water and rinsed off.

That was better than breakfast in bed! Sorry, no pictures.

Hauling Lumber by Bicycle

Last weekend I bought two 12 foot long 2x6 boards, two 10 foot long 4x4, and one ten foot 2x4. I needed to haul them from the lumber store three blocks away, and just refused to start the car to run that short errand. Besides, I have an XtraCycle now.

So I loaded up the bike with plenty of rope, and the kayak wheels for a trailer, and this picture shows how I got the load home.

It was a successful trip, but I don't recommend hauling this much weight with a bike. The inertia in the load made starting from a stop very difficult. Balancing the bike at the initial slow speed was the problem, and the toe clips did not help.

Two Movies

BeeBoo had a great idea: we should make a movie featuring two of his stuffed animals. We cleared out a theater on the living room carpet, set up the "movie" camera on a tripod, then set the stuffed animals into motion.

I named the first movie Attack of the Tiger then BeeBoo said we should make a second movie and call it Revenge of the Horse.

We had fun making these movies, and hope you enjoy watching them.

Missing Teeth, Bookshelf, Birdhouses and Bunny

Last weekend we had a wonderful time visiting in Amboy. We discovered that Arthur had lost both of his front teeth.

We brought a new bookshelf for BeeBoo so he can store his huge collection of books.

We built two bird houses.

One for a Robin...

...and one for a Flicker

We were sad when it was time to go. The bunny came out to see us off.

Comet Lulin Incoming

Watch the pre-dawn skies whenever it's clear for the next two weeks. There is a new comet named Lulin currently inbound. It's orbit nearly matches the plane of the ecliptic, meaning it's aligned with Earth and the other planets, but it's traveling in the opposite direction.

The comet will be closest to Earth on February 24 and will be at opposition (opposite the Sun) on February 25. That should be while the moon is new, so the skies should be as dark as possible, and excellent for viewing a comet. During opposition, Lulin will be visible all night.

The comet's perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) is inside the orbit of Mars, but outside the orbit of Earth, so we will never be able to see a "fan" shaped tail. In fact, since the tail points away from the Sun, and the Earth in this case, and because the comet's orbit is aligned with the ecliptic, we will only see a thin tail extending from both sides of the comet. It's close approach to Earth in a dark sky is what should make it interesting.

For more detailed information, see the description at Sky and Telescope.

XtraCycle FreeRadical Bicycle

Last weekend Lief and Abby helped me assemble my new XtraCycle. It was a fun project, and a lesson in how complicated a simple bike can be. We had to use a Dremel cut-off wheel to cut the new cable housings to the correct length, but other than that we used only typical mechanic's tools.

As you can see in the photo, I got the wide-loader option, but now I'm wondering why. It adds so much width to the bicycle that I wonder if I'll fit between posts at the ends of bicycle trails, and between light poles, fire hydrants and street signs on sidewalks.

With the XtraCycle FreeRadical extension, I am one step closer to having a StokeMonkey electric assist motor.

No worries about putting this bike on a Metro bus either. The friendly people at RideYourBike.com have posted photos of Seattle area XtraCycle owners, including proof of how to load one on a bus bike rack. (Click on the advertisement for XtraCycles to see the photos.)

Bicycle Reflecting Sidewall Tires; Part 2

Yesterday I put my new reflecting rim on the rear of my bike. The reflecting white sidewall tire is still there, but it's hard to see in the glare of the rim.

Raccoon Visitors

Part of the reason I like snow is that it maintains a record of what happened in the night. A family of raccoons stopped by to see if we left any cat food out.

Igloo Rebuilt

Some bad boys smashed my igloo in the night, so I was unable to get any daylight photos of it. Luckily, a team of hard workers volunteered to help me rebuild it. The only requirement was that the new design would have enough room inside for two children to sit in there. You may have to look close to see Bruno because his grey whiskers are the only part of him that shows.

The second photo proves that Evan can crawl through the tiny doorway. He told me, "I'm only eight and I'm as tall as an eleven-year-old."

Notice also that Lillie is leaning on the igloo, showing the strength of the structure. She is heavier than she looks, weighing in at nearly 18,000 grams.

The final photo shows both Evan and Lillie inside the igloo, taken by pointing the camera through a tiny window in the back of the igloo. The window was a design requirement provided by Lillie. (Every playhouse needs a window. It doesn't matter that windows are not typically found in igloos.)

Igloo 2008

I just can't pass up an opportunity to build something in the snow. Here's my contribution for this year: a miniature igloo. It's sized appropriately for fairies and elves, or maybe a cat or dog. Monya wanted me to cover up the opening so a drunk/homeless person doesn't take up residence, but I insisted that the doorway is too small for a drunk/homeless person. Lief and James might be able to identify one of my construction implements by noticing the shape and size of the opening.

Blizzard of 2008

Last night I ventured out into the blizzard to experience the weather, and to get some pictures of the Christmas lights in the park. I dressed in the same way I did when I went out in the blizzard in Midland, South Dakota in 1969. I wore three pair of pants, a sweatshirt, a sweater, two coats, and two layers of hats. It was overkill. I ended up over-heating, because the wind/temperature combination was similar to last week when Lief and I rode our bicycles to work, wearing only one sweatshirt under my rain/wind shell. The temperature then was -7.7C with average wind speed of 15 mph. Last night the temperature was only -7.4 and the wind was blowing at about 20 mph. In contrast, the Midland blizzard temperature was -20F and the wind was 30mph or more. I lasted only five minutes before I had to retreat into Grandpa Noble's house.

This photo of the lights was taken at 1/3 second. I was braced for the photo, but the wind moved me around. The yellow lights on the ground were actually buried in the snowdrift. Blowing snow is not visible at this shutter speed.

This morning there were snow drifts all over the yard. We started with about two inches of snow, but the drifts piled it up to six inches or more in some places, and cleaned it off to bare ground in other places.

At about 2:00AM we got a light sprinkling of freezing rain that put a hard glaze on the surface. So the normally soft, fluffy snow is crunchy on the surface.

Bicycle Reflecting Sidewall Tires

Here's what my bike looks like in the dark. It has reflecting sidewall tires, along with reflector tape on my luggage container, and one reflector in the front spokes. Within a week I hope to have my new reflecting rim on the rear, and can use this photo for comparison.

In addition to this, I have reflector tape on my boots, pants, jacket and gloves. I run two LED headlights; one with a powerful steady beam and the other pulsing, and I have two bright LED tail lights pulsing at different rates. These were turned off for this photo but wouldn't show in this direction anyway. I also have two flashing LED lights in my front spokes that are activated by motion.

All of this lighting is intended to make me more visible to motor vehicle traffic. I suspect the reason a cyclist was killed in Skyway last week was partly because he was not running enough lights in the early morning darkness.

Christmas Lights

This year we put our lights up earlier than ever before. Our neighbors missed their "Friday after Thanksgiving" date so we even beat them to it. Here's what four strings of lights look like on our little Maple tree. It's a good thing we didn't try to decorate the Oak tree. Our lights would not have made it once around that tree.

Arthur on the Monkey Bars

Last weekend Arthur was here to visit. We went for a walk to see what we could find. He found 26 cents, some rubber bands, and some monkey bars. Here's a movie showing what he can do with monkey bars.

Common Snipe

This morning Monya spotted a Common Snipe in our back yard. It was the first time either of us had seen one, and it stayed for several hours, walking around on the ground, and stopping to rest in the sunshine. We worried about Pompi being out there, but we think she was snoozing in the sunshine too, and she left the snipe alone.

Can You See My Finger?

The other day I arrived home from work, put my bike in the garage, then closed the big door. I turned to head for the house when I heard a squeaky voice from next door?

"Hi Jim!"

I looked in the direction of the voice and found only the six foot tall, wooden fence. It was obviously our five-year-old neighbor, Lilly, calling through the fence from her back yard.

"Hi Lilly," I replied. "I can hear you but I can't see you."

I turned to go, but the voice stopped me again.

"Can you see my finger?"

What? I carefully searched the plain white fence, then finally spotted the tiny finger, wriggling like a caterpillar, protruding from an impossibly small knothole.

"Yes Lilly, I can see you now."

Heard it From the Grape Vine

Here is a photo of our grape crop. After three years of watering and weeding, the grape vine finally decided to make some grapes. They have seeds inside, the skin is bitter, and the pulp is chewy. But the juice we squeeze out of them is delicious.

Body Builder Muscle

While gleaning through my finish line photos for the post below, I spotted this close-up of some quadriceps crossing the finish line. It's not a very good photo, but wouldn't you agree that there was some serious time spent building up that muscle? Like maybe 700 miles of cycling in the month of May?

Confident Smile

The comments from last week focused on Lief's expression while crossing the triathlon finish line. As a multi-hour observer of the contestants crossing the finish line, I can attest to the label of "confident" in Lief's case. These photos prove my case, beginning in the upper left, as he was starting out on the three mile run. The remaining photos increase in size as he approached the finish line.

Nearly all of the other contestants, other than Tom and Tony, came across looking totally exhausted. Also to be noted is that these three athletes were sprinting across the finish line at triple the speed of the other contestants.

Kirkland Tri-IT Triathlon

They arrived in Kirkland last Sunday morning before the worms were awake. They waited, in their swimming suits, for more than two hours before they were allowed to start. One of the worms actually crawled across Tom's foot which was probably numb with cold, while they waited to start.

When the three intrepid adventurers finally started, they were at the rear of the pack. They finished the swimming portion in the first third of their group. The photo shows the orange buoy they had to swim around in that 65 degree, cold lake water. A second buoy is out of the photo to the left, about 100 yards away from the first. So they swam about 1/4 of a mile, then rode their bicycles for 12 miles, then jogged for 3 miles.

They probably could have done the full triathlon, judging by the confident smiles on their faces as they crossed the finish line. They finished the course in less than two hours.

Little Girl Visitors

Yesterday we had some little girl visitors from out of town and they had fun playing with the girls who live here.




They climbed the trees in the front yard. They threw rocks into the river. They tumbled around inside a big box.


At the end of the day, we said "good bye" and all the little girls went home.




This morning we heard the whimpering of a little dog. We found our door stop Scottie dog had been tied to the leg of a chair and left that way all night. Poor little Scottie!

Snoqualmie Pass Tunnel Adventure

Poor Lief! He worked until 2:00 AM the night before our tunnel ride, fabricating some ingenious fenders and mud flaps for his bike. I had told him about the mud I encountered on my scouting trip (see the "Trip Report" posting below) the previous weekend. Please don't tell him, but I quietly inspected his bike after the ride and discovered no mud on his bike. My bike still had dried mud on it from the previous week. I guess our 7 mph speed did not generate enough centrifugal force to spin the mud off the tires like my previous reckless ride at 20+ mph did.

But check out the excellent workmanship on those fenders: strips of blue plastic cut from an old recycling bin, plastic coat hangers for fender struts, and an old license plate for a front fender. All of that held together with zip ties and plastic tape.

This ride was much more fun than the previous week, in spite of the fact that Grumpy let me ride all the way through the tunnel with my sunglasses on. I didn't realize that he knew about it until I read his blog description of the event. I had a terrible time seeing, even with my variable-brightness headlight turned all the way up. I couldn't see anybody else's light beams at all, and remember asking Lief if he even had his lights turned on. Happily, the visibility was much better without my sunglasses on the return trip.



The wind inside the tunnel was very cold, and there was water dripping from the ceiling, but the weather outside at the other end was delightfully warm. The view was wonderful, overlooking the Snoqualmie River valley.



The meadow around the picnic table was resplendent with flowers. I believe these pink ones are a variety of thistle. We had a civilized lunch at a picnic table, then explored the area. We found a lizard that escaped over the edge of the steep slope, so there are no photos of him.



We played with two jumping spiders, and took several photos of this black one with red decorations. I was unable to find it in my field guide. It was large for a jumping spider, enough to cover the entire tip of my finger.



Next, we found a black Garter Snake with yellow stripes. The poor thing was terribly frightened when I picked it up. It tried desperately to get away, and all the thrashing about frightened Abby too. The snake settled down and Abby was able to caress the soft scales on the snake's belly. I could feel the muscles along the length of the body contracting in sequence as it struggled to get free of my grip. When I put it down gently, it scurried quickly under a rock and disappeared.



Back inside the tunnel, we struggled to take photos in the darkness. The strobe flash causes some eerie effects, such as intense reflections coming from our bicycle gear, and stopping the motion of the waterfall coming out of the tunnel wall. This scene is a realistic representation of the visibility. You can see the tunnel entrance in the distance, with the bikes illuminated in the foreground and Lief in the near background. Beyond Lief there is only a shadowy hint or silhouette of Grumpy and Abby.



In the opposite direction it was extremely dark. This photo is also a good representation of our visibility. The tunnel wall is barely visible, the people and bikes are within the limit of light, and above and beyond them is total darkness. The far end of the tunnel, two miles away, is visible as a spec of light. Note that Grumpy's gloves were carefully placed in a position where they could not be forgotten. The white specs of light at the bottom and right side of the photo are water droplets falling from the wall and ceiling.



This last photo was a surprise to us all. It is a five second time-exposure that reveals 50 yards or more of the tunnel, including the walls and ceiling. The higher-resolution version even shows the reflectors mounted on the tunnel walls. Our shadows on the floor extend farther than the lights from our flashlights could illuminate. The only light source for this photo was coming from the tunnel entrance behind us.

During the return trip, I decided to sprint ahead so I could see what our group looked like from a distance, and so they could see what I looked like. Without sunglasses, and with my headlight on bright, I was able to see far enough to go 24 mph, but suddenly discovered a group of three or four individuals walking in the opposite direction, without any lights at all. I apologized to them for riding so fast, but they said it didn't bother them. They explained that their flashlight batteries had expired, but they were OK walking along in the darkness. Since I had skidded to a near stop, I decided to look back at our group. They were barely visible, as specs of light from their headlights and flashlights. The tunnel entrance far behind them was brighter than their lights.

We noted lots of pencil-thin extensions, like icicles or stalactites, hanging from the ceiling. We were not sure what they were, because the ceiling was so far away we were unable to examine them closely. They may have been a fungus growing in the dripping water. In order to illuminate them, I had to pick up the front of my bike and shine my headlight on them.

Poor Grumpy suffered from directional and balance disorientation due to the darkness. He wobbled on the bike and even ran into the wall more than once, ending the trip with a bloody knuckle. Although I noticed the effect myself, I'm not sure why he was affected more profoundly. He had only a head-mounted light source, so I wonder if that amplified the problem. My thinking is that peripheral vision is extremely important as cues for confirming the sense of balance. When a head-mounted light source is used, the peripheral cues are eliminated by darkness. My previous experience in this tunnel, four years ago, was without any light source at all. My friend Ray and I ventured only about 100 yards into the tunnel before disorientation overcame our senses and we turned around to go back out.

My final note about the tunnel environment is the echo. Although the echo was fun, it caused a garbling of sound such that a conversation could only be understandable over a short distance.

Abby told Grumpy that she wants to go through there again. I'm delighted to know that she enjoyed the trip, was not in the least bit frightened by it, and I will also look forward to doing it again.

Snoqualmie Pass Tunnel, Trip Report

Today I scouted the route through the Snoqualmie Pass tunnel, from the Iron Horse trailhead at Twin Falls to the Hyak ski area and back.

The Iron Horse Park trail has been improved since my last trip to the tunnel entrance, four years ago. There are cyclone fence railings and finer crushed rock replacing the coarse gravel on the trestles. I didn't have to walk my bike across any of them. There are several outhouses and picnic tables along the way.

Note: The tunnel is closed from November 1 until May 1 each winter.

The distance along the gravel path was 14 miles from Twin Falls to the tunnel entrance, 2.2 miles in the tunnel, and one mile from the east end of the tunnel to the lake view on the other side of Hyak.

The railroad grade is a gradual but tedious uphill going eastbound to the tunnel entrance. On the east side the trail seemed level. Inside the tunnel the trail descends slightly in the eastbound direction, so it is easier going eastbound than westbound.

There is absolutely NO LIGHT inside the tunnel, so artificial lighting is a requirement. Since I made this trip alone, I brought four lights and used only two at a time. There were so many people in the tunnel that I could have easily piggybacked onto any passing group going my direction. The tunnel floor is hard-packed mud, with water dripping constantly, especially near the tunnel ends. There were no obstacles or holes, although a sign warns of the potential for falling rock. The east end of the tunnel is not visible while going eastbound until it is within 1/2 mile, because the path turns about 20 degrees to the south for the last 50 yards. The west end of the tunnel is visible as a faint point of light as soon as your eyes become adjusted to the darkness.

I was not spooked at all by the darkness. It was very much like commuting to work without street lights on dark winter mornings. It was very cold inside the tunnel, so remember to bring warm clothing. My bike fenders and frame are now coated with a thin layer of mud from the tunnel, so fenders are nice too.

My return trip was also tedious in spite of the downhill grade. The gravel, along with a 10-15 MPH headwind, slowed down my pace to 14-20 MPH. (I could have done 24 MPH on pavement with no wind on that grade.) Vibration from the roadway caused my hands, arms, feet, and butt to go numb. My total mileage was only 34.7, but I have felt better after riding 100 miles on paved roads.

My average speed for the whole trip was 12.3 MPH, with 9.9 MPH on the outbound leg. Total time was about 3.5 hours on the bike, with 1:20 in the car. (The car went 73 miles.) We should allow at least 5 hours for this trip.

Here are some optional trips:

Starting Point	Mileage	Time Estimate
Twin Falls	35 miles	5 hours
Rattlesnake Lake	40 miles	6.5 hours
Hyak (riding slowly)	5 miles	3 hours

Biking, the beach, an Airplane

Yesterday we rode our bikes along the lake shore. We stopped to enjoy a pebble beach.

An airplane landed in the water and taxied over to stop at our beach.P'Nut got a chance to see a Piper Super Cub up close, and even talk to the people who were flying it.

Tom Buss Wedding

Congratulations to Tom and Julie. It was a fun wedding, starting with a rousing game of soccer, played by girls in fancy dresses.

Girls posing for photos with the bride.

BeeBoo caught the garter.

Squirrel Relocation

Abby and Colette helped me relocate two squirrels a couple of weeks ago.

Items needed for relocating a squirrel: 1 cage with live squirrel inside, 1 bicycle, 1 bicycle trailer, 2 little girls. The first squirrel we caught that day was friendly, but the second one had fangs and was foaming at the mouth. We decided it had rabies, so we kept our distance.

For any mothers viewing these photos; since the girls did not have helmets, we kept the speed at a walking pace for safety.

During the return trip, we explored a hiking trail through the forest, picked flowers and blackberries, and got a flat tire (from blackberry thorns).