The South PointForty

Winter Melon Madness

2012-01-10T19:46:00.001-06:00

We had an insanely huge bumper crop of winter melons last fall. We are consuming them as fast as practical but they still take up most of the spare bedroom...

Huntersville 1969

2011-12-30T17:12:00.000-06:00

While visiting my parents over Christmas holiday I found a book on their shelf called "A Week In Robert's World: The South". Apparently this was from a series which gave a slice-of-life look at children around the world. This book is about Robert from Huntersville in 1969. There were some interesting pictures of the town as I remember it in my earliest memories.

This is the only traffic light and the only policeman. A good view of Neil's Drugs.
The old high school building at Huntersville Elementary. You can see the newer classrooms off to the left.

This is the old downtown area by the railroad tracks. I think the building on the left is Ranson's Store.

A closer view of the store's door.

Inside the store.

If anyone has more information about these pictures, or if what I have said about them is incorrect, please let me know.

Birds of Australia

2011-11-21T15:24:00.001-06:00

One picture of each bird species we photographed. Picture quality varies. The number in parentheses is the page number in the Morcombe Field Guide (Compact Edition).

Southern Cassowary (11)
Orange-footed Scrubfowl (12)
Australian Brush-turkey (12)
Magpie Goose (15)
Black Swan (15)
Australian Wood Duck (16)
Hardhead (78)
Chestnut Teal (20)
Pacific Black Duck (21)
Australasian Grebe (24)
Great Crested Grebe (24)

Pied Cormorant (68)
Little Pied Cormorant (69)
White-faced Heron (73)
Intermediate Egret (75)
Little Egret (75)
Australian White Ibis (78)
Straw-necked Ibis (78)
Whistling Kite (85)
White-bellied Sea-Eagle (92)
Buff-banded Rail (103)
Eurasian Coot (107)
Purple Swamphen (108)
Australian Bustard (109)
Comb-crested Jacana (147)
Masked Lapwing (148)
Silver Gull (157)
Bridled Tern (168)
Pied Imperial-Pigeon (171)
Wompoo Fruit-dove (173)
Wonga Pigeon (174)
Crested Pigeon (176)
Little Corella (187)
Sulfur-crested Cockatoo (188)
Galah (188)
Rainbow Lorikeet (189)
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet (189)
Eclectus Parrot (192)
Australian King-parrot (male) (193)
Australian King-parrot (female) (193)
Red-winged Parrot (193)
Crimson Rosella (195)
Pale-headed Rosella (196)
Eastern Rosella (197)
Red-rumped Parrot (200)
Fan-tailed Cuckoo (209)
Common Koel (212) The "stormbird"
Powerful Owl (215)
Tawny Frogmouth (218) with chicks!
Marbled Frogmouth (219)
Blue-winged Kookaburra (230)
Laughing Kookaburra (230)
Rainbow Bee-eater (231)
Superb Lyrebird (233)
Superb Fairy-wren (239)
Yellow-throated Scrubwren (259)
White-browed Scrubwren (259)
Little Wattlebird (272)
Helmeted Friarbird (274)
Blue-faced Honeyeaters (275)
Noisy Miner (277)Not dead, just sunning himself in a very goofy-looking way.
Lewin's Honeyeater (278)
Varied Honeyeater (280)
Fuscous Honeyeater (283)
White-plumed Honeyeater (283)
White-cheeked Honeyeater (283)
New Holland Honeyeater (287)
Eastern Yellow Robin (299)
White-faced Robin (300)
Willie Wagtail (320)
Olive-backed Oriole (326)
Figbird (327)
Australian Magpie (331)
Pied Butcherbird (immature) (331)
Pied Currawong (332)
Regent Bowerbird (male) (339)
Regent Bowerbird (female) (339)
Satin Bowerbird (male) (339)
Satin Bowerbird (female) (339)
Great Bowerbird (341)
Bassian Thrush (343)
Common Myna (344)
Silvereye (348)
Yellow-bellied Sunbird (349)
Golden-headed Cisticola (353)
Red-browed Finch (362)
Star Finch (363)

Butterflies of Australia

2011-11-20T11:30:00.001-06:00

Butterflies we photographed in Australia. Still working on the names. Picture quality varies.

Gettin' Busy

2011-08-25T16:11:00.000-05:00

After our much needed rain, the garden was, um, a hive of activity. I counted over ten different kinds of bees and wasps working the flowers - plus the usual dragonflies. I don't know their names so I'll just show their pictures.

Red Harvest

2011-07-30T16:13:00.002-05:00

Our friend who is starting a winery needed help picking her red grapes this weekend.

Heading out, the weather was not promising, but we did see rainbows. No unicorns, though.

By the time we got there, in beautiful ranching country west of Houston, it had turned into a nice day. Here's Sue's new ride outstanding in the field.

If you are like me and know nothing about grapes or wine, these are exactly what you'd visualize wine grapevines to be. Neatly tended vines with big clusters of purple grapes hanging off them.

It's pretty easy, you just cut each bunch off with clippers (here is a representative bunch)...

...throw them in a bucket...

...when the bucket is full, it gets dumped into a tray...

...and the trays get dumped into this big container, which holds about a thousand pounds of grapes.

Everyone together ended up picking about 8000 pounds. Fortunately she had enlisted plenty of help so it did not take all that long. Since her winery is still under construction, these grapes were all sold to another local winery.

Then it was party/lunch time with wine made from a prior harvest! Here's the owner breaking out some bottles.

Here's Sue chatting with the owner's daughter and local politician Shelley Sekula-Gibbs.

This all went smoother than the last time. I think she is getting it down to a science.

NC Mountain Fritillaries

2011-06-26T14:47:00.000-05:00

Taken in Transylvania County, North Carolina.

This male Diana Fritillary let me take some close pictures..

The only female I could find was, um, engaged...I hated to bother them, but I wanted a picture of her!

Also got some good pictures of a Great Spangled Fritillary.

Endeavour and Me

2011-06-01T06:28:00.000-05:00

Endeavour is NASA's newest Orbiter. It was first launched in 1992. It was built as a replacement for the Challenger which, of course, was destroyed in the early minutes of the STS-51L mission in a tragic and completely preventable accident. Although there were no actual plans to build this fifth Orbiter before the accident, wise managers at NASA had allocated funds earlier to build "structural spares". These were all the major building blocks of an Orbiter: fuselage, wings, crew compartment, etc. The fact that these already existed made constructing Endeavour possible. (There were plans to build a replacement set of structural spares after Endeavour was completed, but this was never done.)

When Endeavour was delivered she came with many improvements: an improved cooling system for her auxiliary power units, a drag chute, "hooks" for mission kits that would allow greatly extended mission durations. Since I was working in SMS software at the time, I got to help model all these new and improved systems. That was a lot of fun. These improvements would eventually find their way into the rest of the fleet.

Most notable in her early flights was STS-61 which was the 1993 mission that fixed the Hubble Space Telescope. I am sure some of you remember what a fiasco and PR disaster the Hubble was at first when it was launched in 1990 and turned out to be no better than ground based telescopes due to a manufacturing error. Here's a still from the 1991 movie "Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear" in which Lt. Drebbin goes to the Blues Bar to make himself feel even worse. The walls are covered with pictures of notable disasters: the Titanic, the Hindenberg, Mike Dukakis. And sure enough, the Hubble (arrow).

I laughed when I first saw this but it was a sour laugh. Well, after the crew of STS-61 fixed the scope, it became an icon to Americans and all those jokes don't mean so much any more.

After I left SMS software and joined the late lamented Training Division, I was privileged to work on two great Endeavour missions. The first of these was STS-88, the first International Space Station assembly mission. Once the Russians launched the first piece of the station (built by them, paid for by us), STS-88 was to carry up the second piece, and join them together. I was the Orbiter systems instructor for this crew.

Well, the Russians took a loooong time to get their part up there, so this was a long training flow. But, it was a wonderful experience because the crew was really fun to work with. One of the better running jokes or NASA traditions was that of the 'dog crew', started by David Walker on STS-53. Since this was a secret DOD mission the crew considered themselves the 'dogs of war' and it all started from there. The commander of STS-88 was the pilot on STS-53 and he carried on the 'dog crew' tradition. Here's an unofficial crew patch showing the Orbiter as a dog with the crew's 'dog names' written around it in Russian. There are too many in-jokes on this patch to explain but you get the idea.

The pilot built the 'dogmobile' which as you see was an Orbiter-like station wagon.

The training team did not escape the 'dog names' either. Here's my hat with my proud 'dog name' of Sparky. Woof!

Once the Russians got it together and launched their part, STS-88 went off flawlessly. Here's a picture after Endeavour departed, leaving the core of the space station (Russian part on the left, American part on the right.)

Here's what the station looks like now. The two original parts are barely noticeable in the very middle of the picture, sticking vertically up above the horizontal crossbar.

It was many years and many career path detours before I got to work on another Endeavor mission. By this time I was a shuttle robotics instructor and as far as robotics went, this mission had it going on. There were four separate payloads that were lifted out of the Orbiter by either the station's or shuttle's robotic arm. Each of these payloads was maneuvered around, then handed to the other arm for further maneuvering, and in some cases handed back to the original arm for even more maneuvering! One of these payloads stayed on the station, the other three were placed back into the Orbiter in whole or in part for return to Earth. As you might imagine, all this involved a great deal of training. As the pilot said, it was a three ring circus.

Here's a picture showing the shuttle arm holding one of the payloads and the station arm going in to grapple it.

Although I participated a little in training on some other Endeavour missions (including the recently concluded one), these two missions are the ones that I'll always think of when I hear "Endeavour". Once again, I salute this remarkable craft and the people who built, operated and maintained her. I hope the California Science Center makes a good home for her.

Art Car Parade 2011

2011-05-22T16:25:00.000-05:00

I was sorry to miss this event last year due to a business trip. It was quite good again this year.

I've decided that for an art car to have the high honor of getting its picture on my blog, it has to meet one criterion: it has to be pretty much useless for everyday driving. So no "wraps", no commercial or institutional vehicles, just the True High Weirdness. Onwards!

This one is covered in broken mirrors and had signs begging you not to touch it lest you slice yourself badly. License plate: MIR MIR.

A long time favorite: the wooden pickup truck.

Chock full of fruity goodness.

A bike made of brightly colored rectangles.

"Honk if anything falls off!"

Classic in the simplicity of its weirdness.

What the hell!?! This magnificent beast gets three pictures. Do they own a chrome-plating company?? Best in Show, hands down.

Batwings? Check. Unsuitable for daily driving? Check.

Another great classic. The fish and lobsters sing and wiggle, and the lobster conducter guy extends out over the hood to orchestrate the whole thing.

Please drive carefully, sir, so you don't become a Cake Wreck.

Mate an Edsel with a bulldozer and you get this...ok, it's commercial, but LOOK at the thing.

We all agreed it was a urinal, but no one got the "Our.Mutt 2011" reference.

Two pro-smoking vans. "Did you know George Washington was a tobacco farmer, AND a smoker??" He did other stuff too but they left that off the van.

Another classic of simplicity, the electric ladder-mobile.

How could I not love the Alice one?

Sue's favorite, the art car covered in tiny art cars. Recursion you can drive!

I THINK it's a fish. No one was real sure.

Oh yeah. A giant mammoth covered in plastic trash bags. It's ART, baby!

Winner of the South PointForty Complexity Award.

To wrap it up: Terra Cotta Tilemobile.

Hiking the Big Thicket

2011-04-30T21:34:00.000-05:00

Big Thicket National Preserve, a couple of hours east of Houston, is a sprawling area of great biological diversity. Saturday we drove out and spent the day hiking the area.

This tiny Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillar tries to scare off predators by pretending to be a snake. Neither the eyes or mouth are real - his actual head is the "snake's" lower lip.

A Zebra Swallowtail.

A wild orchid.

In some of the boggy spots, carnivorous plants like these Pitcher Plants thrive.

Their flowers are really odd.

Hiking in Spring

2011-04-23T17:55:00.000-05:00

Hiking both in the season and the town - Spring is north of the Houston metroplex and contains several nice parks and nature centers.

This is a Common Whitetail dragonfly:

The pond that these lilies were growing in was almost dried up which allowed for a closeup picture:

This is not a very good picture of a Pipevine Swallowtail but you can see how it is absolutely covered with pollen from the primrose it's sitting on:

This is a Palamedes Swallowtail nectaring on pickerel weed:

A Black Swallowtail on a coneflower:

We couldn't figure out what this huge caterpillar was until someone realized it was not a caterpillar at all, but a sawfly larvae. The tree this was on was covered in them.

Spring

2011-04-13T18:10:00.000-05:00

Even with the lack of rain, the wildflowers are doing well in the garden (along with the not-so-wild flowers...)

First Passionflowers of the year:

Primroses & Vervain:

Violas:

From the herb garden - Borage:

Cilantro:

From the new lily pond:

Yarrow:

Amaryllis, bluebonnets, no, those stalks are hibiscus:

Flax:

Sweet peas:

Heal-all, Vervain, Bluebonnets:

Gypsies In The Palace

2011-03-26T15:40:00.000-05:00

The Houston Garden Conservancy Open House was today.

Discovery and Me (Part 2)

2011-03-10T20:54:00.001-06:00

The only Discovery missions I worked on as a Systems instructor were in my role as a Simulation Control Area (SCA) instructor, helping train flight controllers in integrated simulations. This was not my most favorite job in Spaceflight Training, largely because at the time there was a philosophy of minimizing the number of malfunctions entered per simulation. In my opinion this just led to a bunch of bored, grumpy flight controllers who didn't get many training objectives. Be that as it may, I did work on the ascent/entry training flows for the Discovery flights STS-103 and STS-92, and on the orbit flow for her STS-105 mission. I hit the jackpot on this one because I got to go to Kennedy Space Center for the STS-105 Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT). This is a dress rehearsal for the launch with the real Shuttle on the pad. From an instructor standpoint we get to crawl around the vehicle and see it close up, as in this picture of me standing underneath the main engines.

After some career twists and turns I started working in Systems Engineering and Integration (this was after the tragic and unnecessary loss of the Columbia Orbiter in 2003). It may surprise you to learn that the flight path of the Shuttle is determined only a few hours before launch and is based on the winds at the time. These winds are measured by releasing scary looking balloons like the one in this picture -

- and tracking them by radar. The wind profiles are then used to calculate the steering commands for the Shuttle. This is all then tested in a simulation to make sure that the flight will go as planned. If all goes well, they are transmitted to the vehicle which flies the trajectory that was just determined.

Now, most things related to Shuttle flight are generated months or years in advance and are tested repeatedly to make sure they are OK. Some people were nervous at the thought of generating the steering commands right before launch and having only limited testing before they were to be used. To make sure that everything was safe, a completely independent simulation was created by a different contractor. The same wind data and steering commands are used in this simulation on the day of launch. The two simulations must agree and must show that the launch is safe, or the launch will be NO-GO. My job was to act as the interface between the independent simulation team and the prime simulation team. This was a very interesting job and I got to do it for the first two missions after flights resumed in 2005. Both of these were Discovery missions.

Sadly, after this Systems Engineering re-organized and got rid of my job, sending me off to work Main Propulsion Integration. This wasn't really my cup of tea and when I had a chance to rejoin Spaceflight Training as a Shuttle Robotics instructor, I jumped at it.

By random chance and timing, of the five missions I would end up working on as a robotics instructor, three of them would be Discovery missions. I did my on-the-job training on STS-120, and then worked on STS-124. This flight carried up the enormous Japanese Experiment Module which would be attached to the International Space Station. I lucked out again and got to attend TCDT for this flight as well. Here I am standing at the junction of Discovery's right wing and fuselage as she sits vertically on the launch pad.

My final involvement with Discovery would be as instructor to the STS-131 crew. This mission carried up a module full of supplies for the space station and was a thoroughly enjoyable experience throughout training. Some unexpected difficulties arose when, early in the mission, it was found that Discovery's high data rate antenna was not working. This prevented crucial data related to the condition of the heat shield from being sent to the ground, and meant that the final heat shield inspection would have to be performed when the shuttle was docked to the space station. A great deal of work was done on the ground to ensure that this could be done in a safe manner. As part of this, a conference was held with the crew in orbit, and I got to speak with them briefly - another career highlight! Due to the crew's skill and diligence, this all went well and the heat shield was determined to be OK for re-entry. Here's a spectacular picture of Discovery docked at the station, showing both robotic arms.

With the successful landing of Discovery after this mission, my direct involvement with her ended. One mission remained for her, the one that was just concluded. I salute this remarkable craft and the people who built, operated and maintained her. I was most privileged to have played a small part in her amazing career.

Discovery and Me (Part 1)

2011-03-09T18:49:00.003-06:00

I've been working at NASA longer than Discovery has. She had more flights than any other shuttle. Of those flights, several were of special interest to me.

On a June 25th, 1984 attempt to launch her on her maiden voyage (STS 41-D), a problem with one of the Shuttle Main Engines as it was starting up caused her to suffer the first pad abort of the shuttle program. This was of great interest to me because at the time I was a propulsion simulation engineer. Not that I actually WANTED failures to happen...but there was a significant lack of data on anything off-nominal to build into our models.

On her next mission, STS-51A, Discovery carried two communications satellites into low orbit and then sent them off to their final operational orbits. She then rendezvoused with two other malfunctioning satellites launched on an earlier shuttle flight. Crewmembers free-flying in space grappled the satellites and stowed them in Discovery's payload bay. They were returned to Earth, repaired, and relaunched. Let's see you do that with your stinkin' capsules.

All of this was great fun to make work in the simulator.

Discovery executed four more missions, all interesting in some way, before the tragic and unnecessary loss of the Shuttle Challenger in 1986. This led to a long down time during which many sub-optimal (not to say dumb) parts of the Shuttle's design were fixed. All of these fixes had to be incorporated into the simulator in time to train the crew for the Return to Flight mission (which was going to be a Discovery mission). This was referred to as the 'Safety Design Review Items' or SDRI task and we were fixing the simulator practically simultaneously with the fixes going into Discovery. Also great fun.

Along with another engineer, I rebuilt the whole simulation model of the main propulsion system during this period. To this day, one of my career highlights is the day that this model was first run in a full-up simulation including the Mission Control Center. I take great pride in the SDRI and propulsion updates that I and all the other Simulation Application engineers did during this period of rebuilding and preparation for the next mission of Discovery.

The Return to Flight mission went off well. Discovery continued to carry out notable missions. In 1990 she carried the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit. The famous optical problems were not Discovery's fault! She launched probes to the Sun, communication satellites, secret payloads for the DOD, carried the Spacelab. She made the first rendezvous (but did not dock then) with the Russian Mir space station.

Later she would dock with Mir in the final Shuttle/Mir mission, STS-91 in 1998. This mission is special to me because it is the second (and last, to date) time that Sue and I saw a Shuttle launch. We had a great time, spending a week there and getting a very good tour of Kennedy Space Center.

Backing up a little, in 1996 I had stopped bending FORTRAN code in the simulator and joined the shuttle instructor corps. I started out in the Shuttle Systems area which was a good fit because I had worked on simulations of these systems. In the next installment I will talk about my involvement with Discovery as an instructor.

Wine and Daffodils

2011-02-21T15:45:00.001-06:00

We spent the weekend at Tyler State Park exploring the surroundings. We were up there because the area is famous among gardeners for the daffodils which have escaped from old home places and now grow wild throughout the area. Our cold winter meant that not all of them were blooming yet but we found sufficient.

We spent a lot of time driving old back roads like this looking for patches of the flowers.

The area is also dotted with small wineries and we enjoyed visiting a few of them. As you can see from the labels, these are not really upscale vintners.

In fact, here are two of the wineries:

We also saw some amazing historic homes:

and visited a historical park which preserves the remains of a Confederate prison camp:

Snipe Hunt

2010-12-21T20:09:00.012-06:00

I like to go out in the garden at night with a flashlight and look for critters. For the last week or so I've heard a mysterious bird fly off when I did this. This only increased my curiosity (I thought it might be a small owl) so I've been searching for it every night.

Last night Sue and I saw the bird fly off in the light of the full moon. In fact, we were pretty sure we scared two of them off. We could see the shape of one of them well enough that we thought it might be a Snipe. Also its wings made a distinctive sound so we decided it wasn't an owl. The bird was not very spooky - it only flew a little way and if I went out an hour later, it was back.

Tonight I was on a Snipe Hunt! Armed with flashlight and camera I was determined to get a picture. Sure enough, it was out by the pond again. I pointed the camera in the general direction and fired off a shot.

Not a good picture but enough to say we were in the ballpark. He moved a little and I tried again.

Hmm, that's pretty fat for a Snipe but it does have the big ol' beak. Could it be... Between shining the light on him and taking shots, I managed to get a decent picture, although only of the back of him...

Well, what do you know. Not a Snipe at all, it's the unfortunately named American Woodcock. The key is that the stripes on the back of his head are horizontal instead of vertical.

So, like all Snipe Hunts, it resulted in no Snipe. But, pretty cool to have this bird in our yard. We've driven quite a ways to see these birds in the past. They are winter residents in SE Texas. It seems that at least two are spending the winter in our yard. At least as long as too many weird people don't go running around flashing lights at them.

Update! Here's a semi-decent side view I took on a later expedition:

Midnight in the Garden of Good Butterflies

2010-12-07T22:00:00.002-06:00

After hours visit to the Cockrell Butterfly Center at HMNS means dark backgrounds and no one around.

Salad Days

2010-12-01T18:55:00.003-06:00

The cool weather means it's time for fresh leaf lettuce and winter herbs.

Air Florida

2010-11-03T20:09:00.003-05:00

Whilst watching the shuttle not launch I took advantage of Central Florida's plethora of aircraft museums.

Here's a small herd of Mustangs:

A flotilla of flying boats...
...an early Sikorsky...

...a rather ungainly Grumman Duck...

...the magnificent PBY...

...and an incredible flight-worthy Shorts Sunderland.

When I was a little kid I read a library discard book called "Sabre Jet Ace" about a thousand times at least. There were pictures like this in it except with bullets shooting out of the muzzles.

A Miller family favorite, the Gee Bee Racer!

This is the unbelievable XFV-1 naval carrier vertical takeoff fighter. Two counterrotating props, stubby wings, cruciform tail, one enormous engine...a living example of the aero engineer rule "put enough engine power in it and get the CG forward enough and it will fly."

Props to whoever did the amazing restoration job on these Titan engines at KSC. They look like they just came from the factory.

Finally, here's a beautiful DC-3 in flight and a brief video of them starting its engines.

Airshow Pictures

2010-10-24T15:07:00.003-05:00

Enjoying the airshow from the South 0.40!

A C-17 and a DC-3 make a low pass together:

One of many aerobatic displays:

F-18:

A replica Mitsubishi Type Zero for the Pearl Harbor re-enactment:

A "Val" dive bomber buzzes the garden:

"Kate" torpedo planes:

F4U Corsair:

B-24 Liberator:

B-25 Mitchell:

P-40 Warhawk:

P-51 Mustang in D-Day invasion stripes:

And not one, but two Texas-based B-17Gs flying at the same time. Wow. This is "Thunderbird":

And this is "Texas Raiders":

Bayou City Art Festival

2010-10-10T16:09:00.000-05:00

Samurai Troll

Wind-powered Mobile

Eggheads

Baytown Nature Center

2010-10-02T16:20:00.001-05:00

Didn't expect to see Bald Eagles 30 minutes from home! Wow.

Here's an imaginative butterfly name: the White-striped Longtail.

A tiny Blue butterfly.

The king bee.

Playing Hooky

2010-09-29T06:04:00.003-05:00

The beautiful fall weather plus use-or-lose time off meant it was time to take the afternoon off and go to Brazos Bend State Park. We pretty much had the place to ourselves...except for wildlife.

Alligators are a big draw to the park and they were everywhere today:

A Common Moorhen showing off his incredibly long toes:

Lotus flowers:

And some butterflies:

Fall Garden

2010-09-19T11:36:00.002-05:00

It feels like anything but fall outside but it's time to get in the fall plants. As usual our challenge is fitting in new stuff along with all the stuff that's already there - 12 month vegetable gardening is a blessing and a curse. Here we're squeezing broccoli in between Tabasco peppers and various squashes.

Speaking of squashes we are storing up plenty of winter melons.

There was a squadron of hummingbirds invading the garden today, never could get a good picture but here's one feeding at the morning glories.

Here's some payoff, a bunch of sweet banana peppers grilling.

In the Basil

2010-08-14T12:46:00.002-05:00

The flowering basil in the herb garden was buzzing with activity today.

This tiny dragonfly is about the size of my thumbnail.

A skipper butterfly with puppy-dog eyes.

A hapless honeybee is caught by a predacious Robber Fly.

NC Mountains

2010-06-28T21:55:00.000-05:00

Best pictures from the mountains...

Blue Ridge sunset:

Wildflowers:

We saw two different feeding frenzies of these Tiger Swallowtails:

Barn Swallow on his nest:

A really big spider:

Jet plane moth:

Red-spotted Purple:

Diana Fritillary (best butterfly of the trip):

Waterfall lady:

Around the Town

2010-06-05T18:43:00.010-05:00

We fit in a lot this weekend including driving all over town on the Houston Pond Society pond tour. Always a great opportunity to walk around some very interesting backyards. Here are some highlights of this year's event:

Suspicious anole -

A happy finch in a bird feeder -

Bunny summit -

Backyard chess -

Obligatory water plants -

Obligatory dragonflies -

From our own yard, rain lilies -

Dew, or failed transpiration(?) lining the squash leaves early in the morning -

Quatre jours à Montréal

2010-05-13T22:41:00.003-05:00

One of many beautiful churches.

St. Joseph's Oratory. It was a very long walk up the steps.

Falling snow, seen from the b&b window.

Skyline view after walking up Mont Royal.

Flowering trees in the extensive graveyards on top of the mountain.

Houses near Rue St. Denis.

Old house in front of a skyscraper.

Rock garden in the Botanical Garden.

Blue Eyes

2010-04-26T20:26:00.003-05:00

Tonight I found a large dragonfly on the driveway. He was stunned as if he had flown into a window or something. Since he was alive his brilliant colors hadn't faded yet, and since he was barely moving I could take pictures. So I took some closeups and then set him back in the yard, hopefully to fly away later.

The Devil's River

2010-03-20T20:59:00.002-05:00

We did some hiking in Devil's River State Natural Area last week. The first thing to know about this place is that it's remote. You drive 45 miles north out of Del Rio on a two lane blacktop, then it's 22 more miles east on gravel.

And Del Rio itself is out there - 160 miles west of San Antonio. The closest big town is actually Ciudad Acuna over the Rio Grande in Mexico.

The gravel road is pretty good but steep in places. Not as steep as whoever put this sign up thought, but steep.

When you get there, the first thing you notice is that it's quiet. The occasional cactus wren singing...

...and the wind blowing, but that's about it.

It's about a two mile, pretty easy, hike from the check-in station to the river. The desert life is usually small and subtle, but can be found. Butterflies are there...

...and flowers, if you look for them.

These Texas Mountain Laurel flowers smell exactly like grape soda.

When you get to the river, it's almost startling in its incongruity. You expect a muddy trickle over the desert rocks, not these tropical Caribbean ocean colors.

We heard a couple of different stories about why it was named the Devil's River. They didn't really make sense. I would think early travelers in this dry land would have thought it was a godsend.

Outside at Last

2010-02-06T17:53:00.000-06:00

Beautiful late winter day in southeast Texas today. I spend the majority of it turning branches into mulch. Late in the afternoon I noticed that the low sun shining through the lettuce greens in the garden looked pretty neat - here are some pictures.

Special bonus peach blossom!

Farewell to the Outpost

2010-01-08T13:48:00.000-06:00

The (at least locally) legendary Outpost Tavern is closing soon.

For decades this has been a hangout for folks who work at the Johnson Space Center. I haven't frequented the place much lately but in the 80's I was more of a regular customer after late night simulation software checkouts. More recently the crew announcement parties for all the shuttle crews I worked with as an instructor were held here. And, there was one memorable party there after Link Flight Simulation, who I worked for at the time, had lost their contract to maintain the shuttle mission simulator, which they had designed and built. The place has been in a couple of movies, notably Space Cowboys (which featured an SMS guy I know as an extra in the bar scene).

I stopped by today after work for one last visit. Much of the "decor" has already vanished including the iconic pressure suit which used to hang from the ceiling over the pool table. The tailhook and a few signed pictures were still there, though.

There weren't many folks there for lunch, but, as usually happened, I ran into a guy that I recognized, doing pretty much the same thing I was doing. I imagine these folks are too.

A final fond smile as I walked through the swinging doors for the last time.

Slightly Higher In Canada

2009-12-12T15:01:00.001-06:00

In the 1970s I was a huge fan of a mysterious writer named Trevanian. This pseudonymous person wrote mostly spy novels, the most famous being one that was made into the 1975 Clint Eastwood movie "The Eiger Sanction". (Much later he was revealed to be a professor at the University of Texas named Rod Whitaker.) But my favorite book of his was The Main. This novel was, on the surface, a murder mystery set in Montreal, but was really more about the detective and the fascinating world he moved in. This world centered on the Boulevard St. Laurent, a street which crosses the entire island of Montreal, passing through many of the traditional ethnic sections of the city, and is referred to by locals as "the Main".

During my recent visit to Montreal I was able to visit the Main. It seemed quite a bit more upscale than what I remembered from the book (probably a good thing). Perhaps the area has been gentrified since the early 70s. In fact, the street even has its own website. But, there are still many cultures represented there. I ended up eating several excellent dinners at restaurants on the street (it is easily accessible from the city's subway system.)

Here's a scan of the fancy fold-out cover illustration from the 1976 paperback edition of the book:

Like I said, it seemed quite a bit nicer now (although I have to say this picture emphasizes the more sordid parts of the book.) Although I really enjoyed most of my trip to Montreal, I think the most memorable part will be the experience of actually walking down the Main after reading about it thirty years earlier.

Giant

2009-11-06T17:37:00.003-06:00

I found what I'm 99% sure is a Giant Swallowtail pupa in the garden tonight. I'm happy because we've seen them flying around, and have the host plant, but have never found the caterpillars. This is evidence that we are actually raising them in the garden.

Here's the adult:

The pupa is going in the terrarium so we can see what comes out.

La Isla de las Golondrinas

2009-10-31T19:01:00.003-05:00

Sue and I just spent a great week in Cozumel. We stayed in a small non-chain hotel downtown in the island's one town, San Miguel de Cozumel. It was a beautiful little place and made a great base from which to explore the island.

Since there is no real bus service and taxi fares to the boonies would have been prohibitive, I had to bump my comfort zone out a notch and rent a car. We got a vintage VW Beetle with manual transmission and power nothing. For climate control you got a choice of how many windows to open. The dash was placarded with a Vne of 60 km/hr, which was no problem at all, since its Weedeater-like engine wouldn't have pushed it much over that speed unless we drove off a cliff. However it was great fun to drive a manual again and experience the pleasures of a simple vehicle, and it took us reliably everywhere we wanted to go. We dubbed her Blanca since she had a gleaming new white paint job.

We split our time between birding and snorkeling. There are several endemic bird species on the island and we managed to find most of them. Here's one of them, the Cozumel Emerald, which was pretty much anywhere on the island that had a flower.

We expected to see more variety of butterflies than we did. However, one of the most common butterflies we did see was this beautiful Erato Heliconian. It was common wherever red flowers were found.

There were several decent places we could access the back country. One was the small Mayan archeological site of San Gervasio. It had a number of reconstructed buildings...this one shows off advanced Mayan screen door technology behind me.

Some of the local landowners also allowed us to walk around their ranchos. This was just one example of how friendly and helpful everyone we met was. When we were birding out by the sewage treatment plant [doesn't everyone go there on their vacation?] many people stopped to offer us a ride. Anyway, one of the ranchos had well developed trails, some of which led back to this unreconstructed Mayan ruin.

Iguanas were pretty common but somewhat skittish, not coming up to you for handouts as we have seen them do in some other spots.

Here's a view of the beautiful, mostly uninhabited and undeveloped east coast of the island.

We really enjoyed birding around the village of El Cedral in the interior of the island. This picture shows some of the vibrant colors of rural Mexico.

It wasn't all hard work, though, we did go out to eat in the town a few times. One of the restaurants was more or less in the front hall of a family's home. After chatting with the owner for a while he invited us out back to see their garden, and took this picture of us there.

We were once again reminded that "our" North American warblers are really just loaned to us for a few months each year by Latin America, and that we really ought to study them before going birding there. So it was humbling to find a tree swarmed by a dozen warbler species and not be able to identify all of them. There were so many that I was able to take pictures of a couple of them.

Finally, here's a quick video clip of us driving Blanca down one of the town's main streets, Avenida Benito Juarez.

Great trip and it all went smoothly with minimal hassle.

Trinity National Wildlife Refuge

2009-10-17T18:07:00.009-05:00

Spent the whole of a beautiful fall day walking around in Trinity National Wildlife Refuge. No new butterflies or birds to speak of but we found these three fascinating caterpillars.

This one turns into the Buckeye (you can see a rather beat up adult here):

The next two are from moths. This is some kind of sphinx moth - the caterpillar was HUGE. Update: Thanks to Bill Oehlke's wonderful site I think this is a Pandorus Sphinx, and I really want to see the adult now.

And, this one is from the Io Moth, whose adult I have also never seen.

Royal Visit

2009-10-10T14:23:00.006-05:00

It's not a rare species or anything, but it's not often that we see a Queen butterfly in our garden.

Seen In the Garden

2009-09-30T20:47:00.002-05:00

This dragonfly seems to have a gentle smile on its face (though it is actually a fierce predator) as it rests on an old sunflower.

This spider has cheerful bright colors but watch out for those scary looking spines.

September Pastels

2009-09-14T21:57:00.002-05:00

This is a good month for passionflowers. We have a pink variety too, but it only opens in the morning.

Ozark Critters

2009-08-28T16:14:00.013-05:00

Best trip pictures from northwest Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma:

Red-spotted Purple (Chickasaw National Recreation Area) -

Doe and fawn drinking from Travertine Creek (Chickasaw NRA) -

TBD Dragonfly (Chickasaw NRA) -

Pool at headwaters of Travertine Creek (Chickasaw NRA) -

TBD Damselfly (Chickasaw NRA) -

Two TBD Dragonflies (Fort Chaffee) -

Male Tiger Swallowtail (Mt. Magazine State Park) -

Female Tiger Swallowtail (black form) (Mt. Magazine State Park) -

Walkingstick (Buffalo National River) -

Tyler Bend area (Buffalo National River) -

Rush ghost town (Buffalo National River) -

TBD Dragonfly (Fayetteville) -

Pipevine Swallowtail (Fayetteville) -

Hognose? Snake (Devils Den State Park) -

Parity

2009-08-09T19:01:00.001-05:00

Bumper crop of pears this summer. Time for pear upside-down cake, dubbed by one of our friends "the best cake in the world".

Freshly Hatched

2009-08-03T20:40:00.002-05:00

A beautiful Polydamas Swallowtail emerged tonight.

Miscellaneous Stuff Found In Garden

2009-07-25T16:59:00.004-05:00

This tiger-striped dragonfly has a mean-looking grappling hook at his rear end.

We haven't figured out what butterfly this guy is going to turn into, but his baby-blue color with neon yellow highlights was impressive.

We have so many lizards in the garden it is incredible. This is one of the more common kinds showing off his throat pouch.

I rudely interrupted these metallic looking damselflies who were sharing a tender moment in North Carolina. This shows you what those grappling hooks are all about.

Speaking of reproduction, it's neat how the pollen bearing anthers on this passion flower are exactly the right size to brush against these big old bumblebees when they go in for some nectar.

Finally, another good dragonfly from the backyard. Kind of a stubby little guy.

Bugs, Mr Rico! Zillions of 'em!

2009-07-13T21:17:00.005-05:00

Polydamas Swallowtail larva. And he's angry.

Out In The Heat

2009-06-27T14:38:00.002-05:00

Maybe not the greatest idea due to the temperature, but we went out hiking this morning north of town. Not much was stirring but it was a decent day for dragonflies.

We're happy to have some of these finches in the garden eating up the sunflowers.

Interesting dragonfly here. I'm pretty sure we've seen it before but not in Houston.

The Halloween Pennants were out in force and I got a couple of good pictures.

Always ready to take a picture of a Roseate Skimmer.

Not sure what this reddish guy is.

Most of the butterflies we found were skippers and here is one of them.

Yet More Baby Birds

2009-06-14T19:59:00.004-05:00

I was reading in the study when I heard something hit the window screen. Looking over, I saw something tiny clinging to it. At first I thought it was a bat, but after grabbing the camera and going outside, I saw it was a baby Wren.

in one of the crepe myrtles outside the study window, Sue and I had hung up an old birdhouse Banks made long ago, and we have seen Wrens around all spring, but we did not know that they actually nested there.

The parents were both around, feeding and coaxing (sorry for the blurry picture).

The baby finally "flew" (to be nice about it) and crashlanded in the shrubbery.

Then I found another baby in the crepe myrtle.

I got to watch the babies being fed for a while, pretty cool, but I finally left because I didn't want to stress out the parents too much.

I also did a nest check on the Purple Martins today. This is a tiny crop out of a picture I took of those babies, but I like it because you can see a dragonfly wing sticking up (one of their favorite foods) and you can see my head reflected in the bird's eye.

Start of Fledging

2009-06-10T18:00:00.002-05:00

The Purple Martin babies are starting to emerge. Here they are sticking their heads out waiting for Dad or Mom to show up with food....

"Where the heck are those guys?"

Dad finally arrives with a tasty bug-

And placed it in one of those gaping beaks.

Pond Tour Day 2

2009-06-07T16:31:00.002-05:00

One guy had a huge model train layout outside in his yard.

Today's best water lily.

Red dragonfly.

Damselfly on water lily.

Best bird feeder of the day.

Pond Tour, Day 1

2009-06-06T18:47:00.002-05:00

A couple of dragonflies...

Heron in a tree...

Water lily of the day...

Best windvane, ever.

Ready to Launch

2009-05-29T16:21:00.001-05:00

Today Junior looked like he's about ready to try seeing the world. His sister was already out and about, but I didn't have the camera when we saw her.

Breakfast Time

2009-05-23T07:35:00.000-05:00

The Downy Woodpeckers are nesting at the entrance of our neighborhood again this year. This morning I staked them out for a while and managed to get this picture of Junior sticking his head out for some tasty grub.

Eater and Eaten

2009-05-16T17:03:00.002-05:00

Pipevine Swallowtail...

and pipevine!

Art Cars 2009

2009-05-09T20:48:00.003-05:00

Good times today at the Art Car Parade, though there were too many "wraps" and corporate cars for my taste. Bring back the True High Weirdness!

There was some in evidence, though:

Bedlam:

Huge chicken is huge (and talking):

All eyes on this one (good mechanical motion on some of the parts):

Some causes represented, although we didn't have W to kick around any more:

No job is complete till the paperwork is done:

Best of show, IMHO (bonus tail-flapping action too!):

Best not photographed: fuzzy pink bunny slippers.

Brazos Bend

2009-05-02T15:54:00.004-05:00

We haven't been to Brazos Bend State Park in years, so we met up with some friends there for a lap around 40 Acre Lake.

Orange Sulphur:

Common Moorhen:

Stealthy alligator:

Purple Gallinules:

Eastern Pondhawk Female:

White Ibis:

Bullfrog (these guys were croaking their hearts out):

Halloween Pennant:

Green Heron:

Blue Dasher:

Pupation

2009-04-27T16:10:00.003-05:00

Another time lapse bug sequence! Here are two Gulf Fritillary caterpillars pupating.

Here they have attached themselves with a bit of silk at one end.

One has attached well enough and hangs down in the J position.

Now the second one hangs down as well.

By the next morning, the first caterpillar has turned into a pupa.

And, when I got home from work, the seond one had also turned into a pupa.

Black Swallowtail

2009-04-25T17:33:00.002-05:00

Sue found this fine, fresh Black Swallowtail female in the garden this afternoon. She was nice enough to give us views of both the wing surfaces.

Emergence

2009-04-24T07:57:00.003-05:00

Last night we were lucky enough to see and photograph a dragonfly emergence. Sue spotted it on one of the pond plants. As the dragonfly hangs from the nymph case it's horror movie material:

An hour later it looks a lot more like a dragonfly, the crumpled mass of wings in the first picture are getting pumped out into their final shape:

A while later the body is hardening and darkening. The wings are still locked up in a near-vertical position.

Now the wings have snapped down flat:

By morning it's much darker and more like its final self.

After it flew off, here's the discarded shell of the nymph:

Wild Things

2009-04-22T12:29:00.002-05:00

Ah, spring, and Gulf Coast Toad mating parties in the pond. This fellow hopes to attract a girlfriend with his jaunty watercress hat.

These little guys made quite a racket last night. I'm sure they are all hung over today.

Easter

2009-04-12T17:36:00.001-05:00

We spent the morning planting seeds in the vegetable garden, but were chased inside by a much-needed rain shower. After the rain the sky cleared up and the sun came out changing a gray blah morning into a beautiful afternoon.

Spring for Today

2009-04-05T19:59:00.004-05:00

Gorgeous spring day today, how could it be better spent than mowing, trimming, and building fence?!

The garden is starting to look like spring with crimson clover

heal-all,

and water lilies starting to bloom.

The caterpillars are starting to appear too, including this Black Swallowtail.

Too bad it is getting cold again tomorrow night!

Houston Heights

2009-04-04T16:56:00.002-05:00

Sue and I visited six homes in the Heights today. I liked this crest carved over the Heights library: an open book and three birds. We should adopt it as our family seal!

Here's a purple house with yellow flowers.

Spring Break

2009-03-22T09:05:00.006-05:00

For spring break we picked up Banks from A&M, then spent a couple of days camping at Lake Whitney and roaming around the general area.

Then we headed to Roswell, New Mexico. They had a good museum display on Robert Goddard, fascinating at least to those who are interested in liquid propulsion.

The other main Roswell museum focuses on UFOs. It wasn't quite as nutty as I expected, and I got a kick out of this cartoon.

A few miles west of Roswell there is still snow in the mountains.

And, on the other side of the mountains is Valley of Fires, a park which contains a lava flow that filled the valley ~ 5000 years ago.

On the way back we stopped at Cedar Hill State Park near Dallas to go to the "Dallas Blooms" exhibition at the Dallas Arboretum.

This provided an opportunity for a botany student to teach us some stuff about plants.

Also in Dallas we visited the Frontiers of Flight museum. Small, but it had some items of interest, like this 1950s Regulus II supersonic cruise missile. A total non-starter, but one of the sleekest airframes I've seen and yet another example of the amazing US postwar aerospace engineering era.

Orchid Tree

2009-03-11T20:16:00.001-05:00

The orchid tree (bauhinia sp.) is looking good this spring.

Froggie in the Window

2009-03-06T21:45:00.002-06:00

This Green Tree Frog was on our glass door tonight, giving us a good look at both sides of him.

Ospreys Overhead

2009-03-01T21:45:00.001-06:00

Two Ospreys were flying up and down the bayou behind our house most of Sunday morning. They have peepy little voices for such massive birds, pretty amusing.

Hauling Mass

2009-02-28T18:53:00.002-06:00

This weekend we're expanding garden plots. Here's the four cubic yards of soil that have to be moved:

Here's where they are going - along the fence for an ornamental plot -

and we're joining these two parts of the herb garden.

Purple Martins Return!

2009-02-21T11:27:00.001-06:00

I was happy to see some of the Purple Martins checking out the houses today.

Why are we starting these seeds?

2009-02-19T07:43:00.001-06:00

Creative abbreviation, or a new kind of plant? Inquiring minds want to know.

Just Peachy

2009-02-16T16:50:00.002-06:00

The little peach tree is flowering beautifully. We never seem to get any actual peaches, but the flowers are nice.

Bug and Bluebonnet

2009-02-08T11:09:00.003-06:00

On our walk today Sue and I found a big silkmoth cocoon...at least, I hope that's what it is. We put it in a jar and we'll see what emerges.

Also, the first Texas Bluebonnet of the year is blooming in the garden.

Green Sauce in 3 Easy Steps

2009-02-07T21:27:00.004-06:00

1) Put tomatillos on a baking pan with garlic and olive oil, then stick them in the broiler.

2) Take the stems out of cilantro until you have about 2 cups of leaves.

3) Take the tomatillos out of the broiler when they start to get brown.

Then blend them up with the cilantro, while throwing in some onions, spices, etc.

Enjoy!

Fencing

2009-02-01T20:19:00.000-06:00

Worked on the south fence all weekend. Our camera has failed so no pictures :( I managed to get it all done except for the gate, and I'm pretty happy with how it looks.

Goldfinches

2009-01-11T11:48:00.001-06:00

Some scruffy looking (winter plumage) Goldfinches are hanging out at our feeders today.

Got 'em

2008-12-31T07:34:00.003-06:00

All the fall tomato efforts paid off, we're enjoying sharing them with the extended family.

Little Passions

2008-12-15T19:08:00.002-06:00

We got a new passionflower vine in South Texas and it's starting to flower now. It's supposed to be the food plant for Heliconian butterflies (third and fourth pictures here . The thing is, the flowers are really, really tiny, which we didn't really expect...

Attack of the Killer Kohlrabi

2008-12-12T18:42:00.002-06:00

Today we picked our first kohlrabi. When getting ready to slice it up for stirfrying I noticed it looks like a vegetable Sputnik:

But after cutting the leaves off I realized they really look like little monsters!

Ferry Flight

2008-12-11T19:03:00.002-06:00

The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft passed by on its way back to Florida, with Orbiter OV-105 on board.

These are not my pictures.

It'll be a cold day in....Houston

2008-12-10T20:01:00.000-06:00

Salsa Verde

2008-12-06T10:51:00.002-06:00

We harvested all the ingredients this morning and are getting ready to make some green sauce. mmmm.

Under Wraps

2008-11-22T11:04:00.002-06:00

Every time it gets near freezing we have to run out and cover the tomato plants. So far it's only been twice this fall. They have a ton of fruit on them, so it's worth it, but I'm hoping they ripen up soon.

Old School Storage

2008-11-15T17:55:00.002-06:00

Old school 1 Gig offline storage = 1 Zip Drive ($100, two cables) + 10 Zip disks ($10.95 each) + Zip disk storage box ($10.00)

New school = 1 thumb drive, $20, negligible size, no cables

Old school went to the electronic waste collection today.

Squash Blossom Quesadillas

2008-11-09T15:42:00.003-06:00

from http://www.seasonalchef.com/recipe0805b.htm

1 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 poblano pepper, roasted, peeled, seeded, and diced
10 squash blossoms
1/2 cup chicken stock
3 sprigs fresh epazote, finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 flour tortillas
1/4 pound grated Mexican white cheese
Olive oil, butter or margarine, for cooking

1. Heat a large saute pan with a little oil and saute the onion, garlic, and the roasted poblano pepper for 5 minutes, until the onions have become translucent. Then, add the squash blossoms and deglaze with chicken stock. Add the epazote, and cook for another 5 minutes until squash blossoms have wilted. Season with salt and pepper, and set aside to cool.

2. To compose the quesadilla, lay two of the tortillas on a flat surface. Distribute the cheese equally on both tortillas. Then, spread 1/2 of the squash blossom filling over the cheese. Cover with the other tortillas, place on heated griddle or nonstick saute pan with a little olive oil, butter or margarine, and cook for about 3 minutes on each side. When golden brown on each side, remove and cut into quarters.

We don't have epazote now, so used hoja santa and misc. spices as a replacement.

"Honey, don't forget your skull!"

2008-11-01T15:47:00.005-05:00

I don't think I've ever heard a parent tell their child that before. But, we were at a Dia de los Muertos festival downtown, and he was talking about one of these candy skulls.

Some of the dancing was unpleasantly reminiscent of recitals I had to go to when I was dating a dance teacher, but overall it was a good time.

Here's one of the inhabitants of the Pet Shop of the Dead.

Warbirds

2008-10-29T19:56:00.003-05:00

Last weekend featured beautiful weather and two days of airshow over our yard. I love living by the airport.

Border Bugs

2008-10-20T20:56:00.015-05:00

These pictures are from four intensive days of bughunting in the Rio Grande Valley.

Special Bonus Screech Owl!

Guava Skipper

Zebra Heliconian

Julia Heliconian

Great Southern White

Beetle-go-round

Snout

Tawny Emperor

Tiger Moth

Common Mestra

Phaon Crescent

Unknown Moth

Empress Leila

Sickle-winged Skipper

Western Pygmy-Blue

Large Orange Sulphur

Southern Dogface

Mimosa Sulphur

Lyside Sulphur

Crimson Patch

Bordered Patch

Theona Checkerspot

White Peacock

Black Witch Moth

Gray Hairstreak

Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak

Great Purple Hairstreak

Dusky-blue Groundstreak

Monarch

Queen

Soldier

Black Swallowtail

Giant Swallowtail

Pipevine Swallowtail

Tropical Leafwing

Common Buckeye

Gulf Fritillary

Varigated Fritillary

Red Admiral

Malachite

On the Slopes of Vesuvius

2008-10-11T15:00:00.006-05:00

This morning I went to San Leon on the shores of Galveston Bay to help out a co-worker whose house had been wrecked by the hurricane. This was the first time I had been to the coast since the storm and I had a little bit of disaster-tourist mindset going in. I stopped at Clear Lake Park to take this picture of the sun rising over the lake.

On the way it was pretty much what I'd seen on the news - sunken boats, boats washed up everywhere, piles of debris lining the streets. It was all a bit incongruous because 90% of everything looked normal but then there would be something bizarre like a houseboat grounded on the side of the road with people apparently living in it.

When I got down to the San Leon area things got uglier. As you can see from the map San Leon is surrounded on three sides by water.

Google Earth says the max elevation of the whole place is about 8 feet. It appeared that the whole town had been submerged in 5-10 feet of storm surge. Again, except for the debris piles it didn't look that bad at first glance. For example, from the road my co-worker's house looked normal. But, when you walked around back...not only had the place been flooded, but vast amounts of floating debris had smashed into the house and ripped the back wall off. I'm talking huge sections of fishing piers piled up in what used to be the living room. We had to cut them up with a chainsaw to get them small enough to pick them up and drag them away.

I quickly lost my disaster-tourist state of mind.

A large number of other co-workers had shown up too so we rather quickly swarmed the job and got it done...basically taking everything they owned (on the ground floor at least) and piling it by the road for the city to pick up. My co-worker's husband kept picking up random ruined objects and saying "I've had this [whatever] for 20 years!"...then flipping it back on to the trash pile.

People who live at the coast can expect this to happen, but the reality of human beings is that most people just don't, at bottom, believe it's going to happen to them. If the storm surge had been twice as high, our house would have looked like just like theirs.

Just like people living on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius. Mostly you get away with it. You may for your whole life. But sooner or later, if you stay long enough, the mountain will rumble. Or, if you live on the Gulf Coast, the storm track will bend your way. Better plan for it.

So, how's your portfolio doing?

2008-10-09T18:18:00.001-05:00

Ahh, Grasshopper

2008-09-23T19:39:00.002-05:00

Hot Colors

2008-09-17T14:14:00.003-05:00

The hurricane wiped out most of the vegetable garden, I guess just from whipping stuff back and forth. All three of my old Tabasco pepper plants seem to have died so I had to harvest all the fruits. They made a nice picture in this garish plastic bowl:

Bullet Dodged

2008-09-15T12:07:00.003-05:00

Very grateful - no damage to the house. Like 90% of Houston our board fence was torn up - some sections blew all the away across the yard. Buy Georgia Pacific stock!

The morning after, sunrise through the hotel's taped-up window:

Trees down in the South 0.40:

Magic Frog Power kept this section standing:

This section blew across the yard and landed in the vegetable garden:

A romantic outdoor cafe:

Two shots of roof damage in the neighborhood:

Somehow the wind pushed these board fence sections together and added a jaunty cap off a playground structure:

Sat. Morning

2008-09-13T06:10:00.004-05:00

High wind, power and wireless going in and out. Looks like the eye has passed east of downtown, so we should see a gradual improvement in the weather. The reports I've seen from Clear Lake City don't sound promising.

La Quinta is Spanish for "Mandatory Evacuation"

2008-09-12T08:13:00.005-05:00

We're staked out in a hotel in Katy, about 50 miles northwest of home. The wind forecasts don't sound too scary. The big unknown is the storm surge and how much flooding may result from it in the Clear Lake area. The predictions vary wildly. The next 48 hours are going to be very interesting, in the traditional Chinese sense.

Sigh

2008-09-10T18:20:00.002-05:00

Well, it's been almost two weeks since the last hurricane scare! They ended a sim early today and basically sent everybody home. It might be a very interesting weekend....

Hurricane Miss and Misc.

2008-08-31T17:46:00.003-05:00

Looks like we'll miss the brunt of Gustav although it could get nasty if it stalls out over north Texas as predicted. Nothing like what the Cajuns will be getting though. At least New Orleans is being evacuated this time.

Back home, it's the calm before the storm. Nice Painted Lady on a zinna here.

We could do nothing with these orchids and basically set them outside to die, or at least fend for themselves. They've thrived since then!

Abilene

2008-08-15T21:08:00.005-05:00

Our last night of the trip was also in a state park, Abilene this time. I have very fond memories of staying here as a nine-year-old with my family on one of our "out West" trips from North Carolina. It's still a beautiful park with an amazing pool built by the CCC during the Great Depression.

Nice end to a good trip.

New Mexico

2008-08-14T21:10:00.004-05:00

The beautiful Rio Grande as it flows through the mountains of New Mexico. Quite different from how it looks on the border.

Monticello

2008-08-13T21:08:00.007-05:00

The small town of Monticello is up in the cool mountains. Just to the west was the crazy maze of Canyonlands National Park. This fritillary was up in the cool weather.

Salt Lake City

2008-08-11T21:07:00.004-05:00

We saw plenty of 6 and 8 percent grades, but this one was the champion for the trip.

Overlooking the Great Salt Lake from high on Antelope Island.

At Golden Spike National Historic Site, a really nice restored steam engine.

Not far from Golden Spike is ATK. In their rocket garden they have an SRB casing.

Some really friendly and curious cuckoos in an aviary in a downtown park. The management is putting together a place where visitors can interact with them; sorry we missed it.

Upper Stillwater

2008-08-08T21:07:00.002-05:00

We spent one night at this beautiful Forest Service campground north of Duchesne, Utah.