San Francisco (March 2010)

I recently got the chance to travel to San Francisco. Overall it was a great trip. The Game Developers Conference was time well spent and perhaps even enjoyable, which is not true of all conferences. I also caught up with some friends and took my camera sightseeing...

A fountain near the conference center...

Palm trees normally signal warm weather, but not this day...

A sculpture near Pier 39. Interesting from many angles...

Alcatraz island from the pier...

The sea lions have returned, but looked like they were just trying to stay warm...

The wind was blowing and my hands were frozen, so I headed into a nice restaurant for a seafood supper and nice views of the bay...

On the long walk back to my hotel, I stopped on another pier...

The next day I decided to hop on a tour bus that went by all of the sites...

Taco Bell and bell shapes in between windows...

I was doing some people watching in Union Square when I saw this unexpected car...

My last day in San Francisco I fit in an early morning trip to Alcatraz. The sun was just coming up as I again walked to the pier...

It was a nice boat ride over...

There are lots and lots of interesting things on the island...

And lots and lots of birds...

And evidence of birds...

And different textures...

Prison showers...

A room that is move in ready...

A cell block...

Nice views...

Escape would not be as difficult as it once was...

3 tiers...

Radiators in the library...

These little windows showed the prisoners what they were missing...

The warden's house has seen better days...

San Francisco is not so far away...

More than one way out of a cell...

A gun gallery...

Stairs to ?...

Metal mesh...

Black and white...

Rusty pipes...

Sailing on a Sunday...

More texture...

Bird proof...

Standing guard...

Another texture...

There are a lot of gardens on the island too. Unfortunately, my time was very limited...

More interesting textures...

and shapes...

Heading back to shore way too soon, but I had a plane to catch...

Squirrel Hangover...

Ugh, I think I had too much Amaretto last night...

Wow, I really need to brush my teeth...

Oh no, I think I'm going to be sick...

Moan...

What's that smell?...

Is it coming from back here?...

   

Do you smell it?...

Actually, it seems to be coming from your direction...

Ice ice

We have gotten a lot of snow in northern Virginia this month and now it is starting to melt and then refreeze. A lot of icicles...

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Thanksgiving at Home

I traveled home for Thanksgiving again this year. It was a bit further than in past years, but traffic was just as sparse and I made record time. My sister-in-law was hosting for the first time this year, so I spent most of the day helping her. We made both ham and turkey, because most of the family much prefers ham...

 

My dad and brother were trying to finish harvesting the corn and managed to over the next couple of days. My brother runs the combine...

and my dad runs the truck and grain cart back and forth for him to fill, and takes care of the dryer. As you might imagine, the dryer removes moisture from the corn so that it doesn't rot in the bin. It's powered by the power-take-off of a tractor...

Now they use a diesel tractor, but growing up it was an old putt-putt (as my nephew would say), which was much louder. It still makes a fair amount of noise and the smell is definitely still the same. I can't describe the smell. It is pretty unique. To me it is a wonderful, familiar smell of home in fall. The corn (or earlier in the fall soy beans) get dumped into the dryer from the other side...

 

 

My dad had a bad cold, but watched over the process anyway.  He keeps everything greased...

He tests to see what the moisture level is. 15% is pretty good for corn.  For as long as I can remember, they've filled this very old Coke can to take a sample into the house for testing...

 

He also carries buckets and buckets of fines up to the faring house and dumps them...

 Fines are essentially cracked corn which people feed to livestock or  birds...

 

Another by-product of the process is some pink snow...

And if it has been raining, a bunch of ruts in the driveway...

Corn yields were incredibly good this year. In some fields they were as high as 200 bushels/acre.  They almost didn't have room to store it all. The biggest bin is full of corn. The others are full of soy beans...

 

 I wandered around and took some other pictures too.  Seed tends to spill from time to time and resulted in a small patch of soy beans near the faring house...

I think the weather vane on the lower hog pen has been shot at and hit...

 

 

My dad is really proud of his pick up trucks. He has only owned two in his entire life. This is #2 and is still in use everyday...

I also spent a few minutes in and around the barn...