From the time I left to go on a recon walk till the time I returned and checked the computer, the river had risen two feet, from 19′ to 21′. But checking upstream at Hopland, the flow has started to drop a bit, so I doubt it will go much higher till we get the next storm. By then it should have gone down substantially, so maybe we won’t get any serious flooding after all.
A crack in the rain.
H2O Mojo Rising
Stairway To Duck Heaven
The Rushin’ River
Water Under The Bridge
It got pretty hairy last night, with powerful gusts of wind rocking the mobile mansion and torrential rain beating down on the metal roof. For some reason the power didn’t go off and we made it through unscathed. My sleep got scathed a little but that was about it.
Going on recon. Report later.
Think I’ll take a walk to the river and see how high it’s risen overnight. Says on the computer that it rose from about 8′ to 18′ in the last 12 hours. We don’t start fretting till it gets in the high twenties, and that’s only if there is relentless rain for days. We are experiencing a nice lull at present.
What’s up with that?
True? Grit
The Searchers is supposedly based on the true story of Cynthia Ann Parker by Comanche warriors who raided her family’s home at Fort Parker, Texas. She spent 24 years with the Comanches, married a war chief, and had three children (one of which was the famous Comanche Chief Quanah Parker), only to be rescued against her will by Texas Rangers. James W. Parker, Cynthia Ann’s uncle, spent much of his life and fortune in what became an obsessive search for his niece, like Ethan Edwards in the film. In addition, the rescue of Cynthia Ann, during a Texas Ranger attack known as the Battle of Pease River, resembles the rescue of Debbie Edwards when the Texas Rangers attack Scar’s village. -Wikipedia
I read a book about the Comanche and Quanah Parker. Cynthia Parker tried on several occasions to flee the white society that had “rescued” her from savagery, and to return to her Comanche family. John Wayne’s character in the film espoused the theory that once you had gone native it was in everyone’s best interest that you be shot.
Meteorologists are excited about the trio of storms they say will douse us with close to two feet of rain before the weekend is over. Storm numero uno passed through from about five AM to ten PM this morning, and there was some pretty hard, loud, drops falling on the mobile mansion for sure. I had to turn up the volume of the TV to hear the news. But around lunchtime the sun broke through and by the time that I took off for my daily walk it was brilliantly clear and gloriously sunny. The creeks were gushing, the rain moisture was rising to meet the sun. Fishermen were flicking their lines out into the fast-moving river. Here are some photos.
Up in the meadow where the grass is greener
Sat an old Mamma dachsund and her little baby weiner. Does anybody read these captions anyway?
Beams of gold strike rippling water
It’s not as purty as my daughter.
Find the hidden angler.
The Buddha from Moscow Road.
Trippy Hoppy
The rains came. From about 5am till 10am it rained in buckets. I grew tired of listening to the weather woman drone on and on about the succession of fronts that threatens to flood us in the next few days. So I indulged in an activity I usually reserve for late evenings. I listened to the radio. Just plugged my ipod into the speakers and tuned to Brando Classic Old Time Radio.
Lucked out immediately with the tail-end of an episode of Hopalong Cassidy. From what I could gather the perpetrator in this tale was an evil hypnotist who enslaved and overstimulated his victims with hallucinatory tea. Hopalong was wily enough to narrowly avoid this fate; California, one of his two sidekicks, was not so lucky, and the episode ended with his drug-addled riffing as it faded into the background, eclipsed by Hoppy’s trademark guffaws. That’s something you’ll never see on your high-falutin’ HDTV.
Next up, an episode of “Big Jon and Sparkie’, a show I loved as a child. The computer enables us to re-experience the entertainment that influenced us as kids and helped form our tastes and tendencies as adults. I was amazed at the quality of voice work, the audio tech, and the writing of this episode, which had Big Jon, Sparkie and Mayor Plumpfront, attending the opening day game for The Cincinnati Reds Major League
Baseball team. The air of authenticity was preserved by using the real Reds lineup when the announcer introduced them. The Mayor got to throw out the first pitch, but the real star was Sparky’s friend Eukey Butcha, who for some reason was able to be the Red’s starting pitcher. I didn’t think much about why I liked this show as a kid, but now I can tell that this radio production was “sparked” by the contributions of two talented men, writer Don Kortekamp, and actor Jon Arthur Goerss.
Jon Arthur was the professional name of Jon Arthur Goerss. As Big Jon Arthur he was the host of the Saturday morning children’s radio series, Big Jon and Sparkie. Sparkie, “the little elf from the land of make-believe, who wants more than anything else in the world to be a real boy,” was actually the recorded voice of Jon Arthur played at a fast speed.
From his home in Pittsburgh, Jon Arthur went to radio school and then began his broadcasting career at radio station WJLS (Beckley, West Virginia), signing on two weeks after the station went on the air in 1939. Arthur later left Beckley for Ogdensburg, New York and soon headed for the West Coast. Arthur died in California in 1982.
At WSAI in Cincinnati, Arthur began the Big Jon and Sparkie show, carried daily on 181 ABC stations beginning in 1950. ABC also aired his two-hour Saturday show, No School Today, heard weekly by 12 million listeners on 275 stations. The show’s theme song was “Teddy Bears’ Picnic” as sung by Ann Stephens. Cincinnati’s Don Kortekamp, who was an editor at WSAI, teamed up with Arthur to become the scriptwriter of Big Jon and Sparkie.
Arthur originally created the character of Sparkie as a young scamp who would interrupt him while he was on the air. WSAI’s station manager asked Kortekamp and Arthur to expand this into a radio program. Arthur voiced all of the various characters while Kortekamp provided the scripts for their adventures and a local businessman in the novelty business produced a Sparkie puppet. Kortekamp drew on his memories of his childhood in Cheviot, Ohio when creating new characters and the plots for the program. Mayor Plumpfront, the Krausers, Clyde Pillroller, and Eukey Butcha were all based on people he knew while growing up. However in 1951, the station did not renew its contract with Arthur and the program then moved to new Cincinnati studios to continue its ABC radio broadcasts. (courtesy of Wikipedia)
You can listen to these wonderful broadcasts and ever so many more here:
http://www.brandoclassicotr.com/
that is if you’re an old retro radio geek like me.
Pipe Dreams Are Better Than No Dreams At All.
Gail wants to step up the exercise regimen after all the seasonal gorging that’s been going on the last few days. She went directly to the shed after work and started cranking up the HealthRider to some new itunes. After that I talked her into going for a walk. As we left the driveway with our over-excited pooch on his leash, we ran into Jesse, Kaitlyn and Bruce (on his leash), ready to do the same. So, hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s off to walk we go. We met Fran as we went up Foothill Blvd. and she joined us as we made our way across the Monte Rio Bridge.
Here are some photos:
Old Man River
Bruce Runs In Grass
Rustlers Rustling Through the Leaves
Fran, Gail and Aldo On the Way Home.
Forty-Niners Gold?
Yes, I was one of those who complained and advocated for the ouster of Alex Smith during the Dark Ages of Niner football. He was either making bad decisions or being thrown around like a rag doll (due to deficiencies in our offensive line I admit). Now that our O-line has been rock solid for a couple of years, there are a lot of quarterbacks who could succeed when given this quality of protection. Alex Smith had a wonderful year last year and a good start in 2012, and most Forty-Niner fans were well satisfied with his performance, but still the doubts lingered. Was he great enough to get us to the next step, The Super Bowl.
It is becoming clear that at least one person is not sold on Smith’s abilities to get us the trophy. And that person is an important one, indeed. He is the coach of the team, Jim Harbaugh. Wikipedia says:
Colin Rand Kaepernick (born November 3, 1987) is an American football quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League. He was drafted in the 2nd round, 36th overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft. He played college football at Nevada.
Against the New York Jets, Kaepernick scored his first career touchdown on a 7-yard run.[11] Kaepernick has been used throughout the season as a wildcat quarterback.[12]
Kaepernick got his first NFL start on November 19, during a Monday Night Football game against the Chicago Bears at Candlestick Park with starting quarterback Alex Smith out with a concussion from the week before. Kaepernick completed 16 of 23 for 246 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions in a 32–7 win against a highly ranked Bears defense. 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh spoke highly of Kaepernick’s performance after the game, leaving open the possibility of Kaepernick continuing to start. “Usually tend to go with the guy who’s got the hot hand, and we’ve got two quarterbacks that have got a hot hand,” Harbaugh said.
Another Thanksgiving feast with a slightly different cast of characters, a warm fire in the stove, more delicious food and lots of cheerful conversation.
The wheelbarrow rests for the holiday.
Leslie is a good listener.
Cold outside, warm inside.
Chris loads the mac and cheese.
Naia is a-peeling.
Where we keep the kids who don’t eat their veggies.
Zack who will be returning to his home in Cambodia very soon.
Aldo was upstaged by other dogs on Thanksgiving Day. He got to sit at table with Gail yesterday.
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