Thursday, January 26, 2023

Social Determinants de Coronado


A couple days wandering about downtown San Diego and over to Coronado.



While the Marriott offered an excellent view of the city and the mountains, there was no time to linger about the room. An early afternoon landing in San Diego, after departing Kansas City around lunch time left a somewhat desperate desire for sustenance.   It took very little time to locate Taqueria Los Chuchys on Fourth Avenue and enjoy a little, though somewhat greasy, street taco happiness.  Mostly clear and 10-12°C finished off afternoon into evening strolling about the bayside quadrant.


Little seemed to have changed.  Many of the same places under construction on the prior incursion 10 years ago appeared as though they were still under construction.  The afternoon melted away under a slower pace.  Passing through 5 kilometers of the urban bayside, base camp for the next couple of nights arrived as the sun began to get down on the horizon. 

Going back in time brought about an early than usual morning, offering another chance to drift through the immediate area around the hotel.  A conference held in the same location would be the test of endurance for the day.  


Our crew ended the long afternoon of experts exhibiting statistical growth visuals they seemed to misunderstand, at this infamous location.  The Whiskey House in San Diego stands in the Guiness Book of World Records for hosting the most whiskey in the world; indeed, whiskey from all over the world!  The multi-volume menu required more time than available but sufficed to produce "Midnight Moon" from North Carolina. A bit of charcuterie, followed by a filet of Salmon closed the affair out nicely.


The team split up after that, parting ways for a variety of destinations, primarily those only seen from behind closed eyelids.  A brief wander about later that evening revealed a new site noted earlier in the day. A massive shell in Jacobs Park glowed a beacon at edge of the marina.  A production of any sort at this venue is likely a fun and fantastic experience.


The conference did not run quite as long on the following day, nor was it any more particularly enlightening. Afternoon quickly unfolded across 24 kilometers by ferry and foot.  The latter of which dominated the transportation type much of the length of Coronado Beach. Barefoot operations slowed the pace on this clear and sunny 15°C afternoon.  Colleagues found their own space but departed much earlier.  Slightly inland to the Burger Lounge, which offered a delicious opportunity to reflect on how much time before sunset.  Beach Time enables everything and watching the sun melt into the horizon of the Pacific Ocean, the return journey followed in short order.


Crossing back on the ferry later, after walking the distance back to the landing, found conversation with a local couple out for a walk.  They had both once lived and gone to school in Missouri.  It is a small world, indeed.  Walking continued into the morning, up and along the bayfront, thinking it might be an enjoyable travel this method through to the aerodrome.  Broadway was the furthest attained.  Traveling cargo proved an unplanned detriment to the task and the 992 supported the remainder of the expedition.


The window remained elusive on the flight out, but the lottery turned favorably on this return trip. Earth and sky quickly spread across a horizon from 3 kilometers above and this in-flight film offered up clear skies across the southwestern United States.  Most of Kansas lay covered in snow, with the eastern portion obscured by clouds through to landing.  A few landmarks noted in the previous journey along this route went into hiding, others boasted a new look, and a few new formations displayed their best contours. 

. . .

Further Reading

San Diego, CA

San Diego, CA

Coronado, CA

Coronado, CA

Sunday, December 4, 2022

A mostly bare Loess Bluff


A Sunday trip out to Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge for Eagle Days found much clearer skies than the last visit out at the first of this year.  Temperatures were much warmer than that journey as well, around °C.  The eagles proved as sparse as the clouds too.


An opportunity to admire these raptors up close proved the best viewing.  The first introduced is shown above.  The Harpy is biggest and the baddest of the group.  It ranges as far south from Mexico into Argentina and have held the honor of an Endangered listing since 1976.  


Over the last couple of years, the cold of late December stands more successful in the field.  The ongoing drought, which created dry, shallow conditions at the site, likely contributed to the scarcity of waterfowl observed at this time. Hardly any were observable from closer than a half kilometer, at best.

. . .

Further Reading

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Animalia.bio

US Fish & Wildlife Service

US Fish and Wildlife Service

Saturday, November 26, 2022

Silver Dollar Overload


Setting off on the latest post-holiday adventure, our crew landed in Silver Dollar City without incident.  The remainder of the day would remain in question.  The mass of people joining this expedition proved astounding.  Later inspection of statistics outlined an amusement park at 97% capacity.  It was too much.

From the moment of entry, the masses insisted on forward movement.  It did not matter in which direction, so long as it was away from the front gates.  Resistance proved futile.  We persevered though, riding rode the crest to discover the most welcoming place of sustenance that did not already host an hour or more wait.


We plunged back into the fray, satisfied and in a better frame of mind to handle the obtuse situation.  Inspecting the variety of offerings brought no real sense of joy.  Silver Dollar City has long since sold out to commercialism.  Very little is actually made there any longer.  Most items are directly imported from China.  There are a few exceptions; very few.

Shopping proved relatively easy.  Otherwise, lines were awful in every direction, boasting a wait time of an hour or longer for even the simplest things.  Waiting for the night parade to begin, one man returned with hot chocolate for his family, proudly declaring he had waited in line for one hour to obtain the substance.


A portion of the expedition chose to ride the "Time Traveler" roller coaster prior to the start of the parade.  They did not return in time; instead, standing in line for more than an hour.  The parade came and went, much to their disappointment.  Those of our crew remaining, enjoyed the show, excepting the interference of angry woman.  She decided to chastise us for choosing to sit where she was clearly reserving six spaces on a rock wall.  Her moose intervened, but decided to forgo any sort of sustained confrontation, after hearing of her blatantly rude and antagonistic opening remarks to the situation.

In contrast, the crowd was mostly jovial throughout the day, and our crew all seemed to have a good time of it.  It was that evening hour that things began to deteriorate.  In addition to the aforementioned situation, parents appeared drained, and the protests of children echoed in every hollow.  One woman passed, dragging her child along, insisting they were going to have fun, as the child howled in response, "I don't want to have fun!"


Our clan had reached a pinnacle of excitement as well, but took a little time to wonder at the millions of lights adorning nearly every building, tree, and orifice of the front third of the amusement complex.  A man doing repairs earlier in the day had indicated there were over 6 million lights on display there.  He followed that up with the fact that they were all torn down after Christmas and tossed to the side for someone else to figure out.  That seemed a bit of a waste, and not entirely representative of the "hillbilly" ideal, where nothing is ever really thrown out; rather, repurposed.


The following day, thoughts turned towards looking about Branson a short while.  That was quickly shut down, as the town roared to life after breakfast, seeking in earnest to reproduce the population encountered the previous day.  The road home suddenly took on the luster of a well-polished diamond.


This turned out the best decision all around. and offered up the chance to wander about a bit of memory lane in Warsaw.  Some of our crew found more exceptional opportunities for shopping in that little town, along with quiet sustenance and a unique little light display at Drake Harbor.  Lesson learned.  Stick with the simple things.


The road home was mostly uneventful. Rain greeted our expedition as we neared the city, just after stopping at a traditional spot for a little ice cream from the home state.  The blackberry cobbler is truly delicious and the price, much more satisfying than buying it at the local market for five times the same amount.



. . .

Further Reading

Silver Dollar City

November 25, 2022
Queue-Times.com

Warsaw, Missouri

at Break Time in Clinton


Saturday, November 5, 2022

A New Computer Experience


Buying a new computer is equitable to buying a new car.   It is exhilarating and awful in the same breath. There are entirely too many options to filter the noise out effectively, as well as a lot of junk, too.  Sometimes, it is better stick with what you know.

I gave in to the world of Apple, recently while considering options to replace my 2014 i5 with something similar to the to the Mac Mini M1.  I wanted appropriate power in a small footprint.  That little piece of equipment fit the bill, while the variety of comparable options in the PC world boggles the mind, with mixed reviews. Conversely, Apple's reputation for both hardware and software stood for itself.

All seemed well, at first.  Learning the OS involved a lot of "how to" searches.  Each left me a little more disappointed, each time.  Functionality in that realm is somewhat limited or pushed to "the cloud" without any other option.  That may not be entirely true, but I did not wait around long with this platform.  

A lack of ability to write to NTFS drives felt crippling.  There is an option out there to enable it, but often the installation requires changes to the kernel, seeming to leave doors open.  Other options offer the chance to "brick" your new Mac Mini M1, attempting to open this forbidden gateway.  

That was really the last straw.  I packed it up and sent it back.  Suddenly, there seemed very little reason to abandon the old i5.  A facelift with Windows 10 made it feel new again, along with my old friend the alien head.  That upgrade had been put off for entirely too long.

It did not last long and was a poor choice, ultimately leading to a new i7 nVidia supported machine running Windows 11.  It is good and makes light work of photo processing and video editing.  

The video editor is a love / hate situation.  It lacks certain functionality, while churning out high quality product.  The recommended ClipChamp turned out to be a pile of garbage, leveraging so much compression that video looked awful, even at 1080p.  I hope DaVinci Resolve stands up to its name and resolves the necessity to lean on either of the aforementioned.


. . .

Further Reading

If you are a veteran Windows user, don't buy a Mac.  It is not worth the trouble.  
The entire thing is designed for beginners and too simplified, to the point of annoying.

Sunday, October 23, 2022

October Arkansas Wandering


A new angle of presentation materialized on the recent journey south into north central Arkansas.  It seemed it might be fun leveraging Google Earth to share these adventures. A lot of consideration ensued with that in mind, and the road unfurled under beautiful blue skies.



The weekend lived on the backroads, a few of which were captured on the GoPro.  It all started with a detour down AR-66 in Leslie.  Weary of the view from US-65, the alternate route east along AR-66 from Leslie offered considerably less traffic and beautifully windy roads.  Turning south on AR-263 just before arriving at Timbo took the expedition south to AR-9 at Rushing and on to Shirley and the old Missouri & North Arkansas Railroad bridge that crosses the Middle Fork of the Little Red River.



The crossing was assembled in 1907 and opened to travel in 1909, running until 1946.  After that it received concrete makeover for motor vehicle traffic and nobody looked back, or down for that matter.  Passing through can be somewhat hair-raising.



Ghosts and ghouls greeted the evening of arrival, through an array of decorations for the Halloween holiday.  It was quite a site.


Checking in on Mossy Bluff National Nature Trail the next day found things a bit dryer than usual.  This year had been hard on cascades and waterfalls.


Following up on a a personal project initiated on the last visit to this area, scouted yet another old logging trail within the Jim Kress Wildlife Management Area.  This led along a path of shedding pines dry creek beds, leading from Warren Mountain Road to the Big Creek crossing of the same road.


Circling around and following along a few new highways back to home base led to yet another Big Creek crossing at Tiger B Road.


A good dinner and conversation with family and friends closed out adventures for the day, with thoughts towards how tomorrow would unfold.


Heading north the next day found skies threatening to cloud over, but remaining relatively dry and clear for a journey down Gunner Pool Road.  It was a good thing.  Rain could have made things very messy.  As it were, the camera proved uncooperative enough in the first couple of kilometers, becoming unstuck and drifting this way and that a few times.


A peaceful and quite 150 meter descent over 2.8 km along an old fire road, now horse trail, set the day in perspective. It was not a huge task, though a little steep near the end, but nothing unmanageable.  This part of the forest is usually overgrown in August and September, and typically dying back by this time of year, before the growing season begins again in March.

A month earlier would have witnessed spiders and their webs, devouring most of the insect life. The rest of the year, they cannot seem to keep up and the random assortment of insects are overwhelming.

Increasing frequency of hikers have left their trashy mark here and there, but nothing too awful, yet.  The intrusion of ATV, shattering the pristine quiet of the scene suggested that "yet" may come sooner than later for this part of the abandoned.

Otherwise, it was a peaceful and quiet walk in the woods. Out and back means what goes down must come up. The hike out is no more exerting than it is going down though.

This late mid-October late morning visit, all was dry, except one of the few running horsetail falls in the Ozark National Forest this season.  Most ran out of water much earlier in this dryer than normal year.  A couple of nearby springs feed this one, ensuring a fairly constant flow.  It would be interesting to see this one after, or during, a good rain.


The return trip to home base paused momentarily at an old "swinging bridge" over South Sylamore Creek.  The wire suspension, wood deck bridge is open to two-way traffic, but be prepared for one lane of traffic.  It is only about 3.5 meters wide.  The structure was built in 1943 and spans 60 meters to cross the creek and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.


Later that afternoon, one more excursion into Jim Kress WMA, discovered Litaker Ridge Road, a reasonably good cut through the area.  Civilization does not exist here.  The wind and their passage through the pines is all that matters in the moment.




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