Feb 3 late afternoon

(Chunlin's photo above)

Up the tame Buller Gorge to the swingbridge. Metal suspension bridge for pedestrians. Quite bouncy.

Nature walk past an earthquake fault line. A fifteen-foot drop from a 1920s quake still has bare vertical dirt showing in places. ... Oh, and the sandflies!

(a stranger's photo above)

(a stranger's photo above)

(a stranger's photo above)

(a stranger's photo above)

On our way back across the river, instead of the bridge, we took the zip line. Enjoyable, great view. I was still holding on for dear life, though. Especially when we approached the far side at top speed. Both of us started yelling out.

Chunlin is driving for the first time this trip. Very odd in the left seat. She's getting the hang of it, more or less. Faster road than what I adjusted on. ... I think I overestimated the drive time for today. My butt's still sore from sitting, though. ... 6:30 , we're checked into our hotel for the next two nights. Our room has four beds, zero chairs, zero tables. And there's no good parking lot. ... And Chunlin got a ticket for crossing the double-yellow line on a corner. $150. "Damn it." ... The cop showed us photographs he took while tailing us down the steep hill. Is that safe? Taking photos on a very curvy road?

We can see the North Island, just across the water. ... Wait a mo. That's still part of the South Island. We're facing east, not north.

Lots of families with small kids here in Kaiteriteri. It's the last weekend before school starts.

Feb 3 afternoon

Pancake Rocks. Big area of crashing surf and towering cliffs, spouting blowholes, and camera-snapping tourists.

(Chunlin's photo above)


(Chunlin's photo above)

Feb 3 morning

Left Hanmer Springs at 8:10, stopped in Reefton after a couple hours' drive through the mountains. Green tree-covered hills. Big rivers, following them up and down. Finally now at Greymouth, on the coast, a bit after eleven. Jade shop here unimpressive. I guess I just don't like the artisans' style of the Maori tradition.

(Chunlin's photo above)

Pancake Rocks. ... From way up atop the cliffs, not quite as impressive as huge waves crashing should be, but still impressive. Fun to watch, hard to photograph.

Deception Pass to Deception Pass

Start out going EAST on WA-20 toward ROSARIO RD.
After 18.1 miles, turn RIGHT onto GOLDENROD RD.
After 0.1 miles, merge onto I-5 S via the ramp on the LEFT.
After 35.7 miles, merge onto US-2 via EXIT 194 toward SNOHOMISH/WENATCHEE.
After 57.1 miles, turn RIGHT onto DECEPTION CREEK ROAD #6088.
After 1.0 miles, park your car. Remove all valuables.
Start hiking SOUTH on DECEPTION CREEK TRAIL #1059.
After 10.3 miles, end at Deception Pass.

If Today Is Monday, Why Was Sunday So Long Ago?

Today feels like Monday, back to the old weekday routines. But yesterday certainly was not Sunday. No, Sunday was eons ago.

The past two days were definitely "other." Not workday, not weekend, not vacation. A whole other world, over in Spokane.

With that construction project almost completely wrapped up, not much was happening over there, so every time I stepped outside, I got distracted by the big blue sky, the warm sun, the crisp, fresh air, the silence. It was relaxing.

When I finally left that building yesterday (which I've been to and been working on for five years now, one project or another) and realized that I wouldn't be coming back, I started getting a little bit wistful. A bit melancholic. That place, even though I'd been there fewer than ten times, was familiar to me. And yesterday I had to say goodbye.

But all that still doesn't mean I want to go back anytime soon!

Return to Spokangeles

I checked out a company laptop on Friday so I could have a computer while onsite today and tomorrow. Last night, I plugged it in to charge the battery so I could use it at the airport.

This morning, I left home without the laptop. I didn't notice until I was at the airport and it was too late to go back for it.

But the hotel has a couple computers I can use and check work emails. Can't you tell that's what I'm doing right now? Working?

Feb 2 afternoon

Christchurch needs limited-access highways. It took a half hour of stoplights to reach the city center... I'm glad I have a cute girl like Chunlin by my side...

Cathedral big & old, like a good cathedral should be. Internet shop to finally post photos and check email for the first time in several days. Nothing important, of course. ... Now at a Japanese/Korean hole-in-the-wall. Kimchi hot!

We finally got off the dull Canterbury Plains and up into some hills. Almost mountains, even. Much nicer. ... A long soak in some sulfur springs will cure all that ails ye and wash your woes away. Plus, we even have time for me to do laundry! The springs here at Hanmer Springs are now an assortment of pools. Some are direct, so it seems, and hot: 40°C/41°C. Some are typical swimming pools, smell of chlorine instead of sulfur. And a few seem half and half. Color-coded, too. Typical bright blue for chlorine, icky brown-gray green for the sulfur, and a nicer bright green for the half-and-half. We stayed the longest in a nice green one. 36°C, but it was warmer than another one marked 36° too.

Whoever's heard of a 50-minute clothes washer?

Feb 2 morning

The day has dawned reborn, blue skies and beautiful. Well, some clouds moving in now, but let's ignore them, all right?

(Chunlin's photo above)



(Chunlin's photo above)

And then on to Moeraki for the spherical boulders on the beach. Nice walk in the sun & sand. Would be more spectacular at sunrise. Many people, all clambering for photos, posing with and on the rocks. Just like me!

A Somber Texas Independence Day to You!

When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted, and so far from being a guarantee for the enjoyment of those inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression.

When the Federal Republican Constitution of their country, which they have sworn to support, no longer has a substantial existence, and the whole nature of their government has been forcibly changed, without their consent, from a restricted federative republic, composed of sovereign states, to a consolidated central military despotism, in which every interest is disregarded but that of the army and the priesthood, both the eternal enemies of civil liberty, the everready minions of power, and the usual instruments of tyrants.

When, long after the spirit of the constitution has departed, moderation is at length so far lost by those in power, that even the semblance of freedom is removed, and the forms themselves of the constitution discontinued, and so far from their petitions and remonstrances being regarded, the agents who bear them are thrown into dungeons, and mercenary armies sent forth to force a new government upon them at the point of the bayonet.

When, in consequence of such acts of malfeasance and abdication on the part of the government, anarchy prevails, and civil society is dissolved into its original elements. In such a crisis, the first law of nature, the right of self-preservation, the inherent and inalienable rights of the people to appeal to first principles, and take their political affairs into their own hands in extreme cases, enjoins it as a right towards themselves, and a sacred obligation to their posterity, to abolish such government, and create another in its stead, calculated to rescue them from impending dangers, and to secure their future welfare and happiness.

The above is the first few paragraphs of the Texas Declaration of Independence, written during the wee hours of March 2, 1836. The national government of which they write is the Mexican government, by the way. How well is the United States of America of 2007 doing by comparison?

How's that diet going?

Oof.

Two donuts and six slices of pizza.

Why do they do this to me?

Don't they know I have no willpower?

Climate, Gods, and Monsters

The snow falling outside my window reminds me of The Year without a Summer, 1816. It also reminds me to pray to Rívorí for some more Global Warming!

But anyway, 1816. In northern Europe and eastern North America, it snowed off and on throughout the year, killing crops and humans and everything in between. Apparently there'd be days where the temperature would switch from the 90s down to freezing in a few hours.

This was at the tail end of the Little Ice Age, when generally the planet was getting warmer. But then a huge volcano erupted in Indonesia and cooled the planet back down with its ash.

A couple interesting tidbits I discovered about the summer of 1816:

Joseph Smith moved his family from Vermont to western New York because his crops died. A few years later, he'd get a visit from an angel and start a religion.

Over in Switzerland, a national emergency was declared by the government. But it didn't really ruin Mary Shelley's vacation in Geneva. She and her friends spent the summer cooped up indoors, hiding from the incessant rain, so they decided to have a contest amongst themselves to write the scariest story. Her finished product? Frankenstein.

Lintel vs. Lentil

Something every contractor should know:

Lintel:

Lentil:

Driveway 2"+

This morning, I snoveled the show.