Uploads from wirehead, with geodata

Week 11: Not flying

nobody@flickr.com (wirehead) — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 14:12:22 -0800

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So I haven't been hang gliding for around 3 months. So I had an uphill battle this lesson getting my act together.

Now, my usual instructor, Dave, is awesome. He loves flying, in many different shapes and forms. His wife is a former student. His daughter glides. He flies little RC aircraft. And, despite the fact that he's extremely accomplished as a hang glider pilot, he understands what's going through somebody's head on the first lesson.

Last time, I had a different guy, and he just didn't click with any of the three of us. As a result, I got snakes in the cockpit last lesson that it took switching back to Dave to get rid of... and this lesson I was a little scared.

Towards the end, I was actually doing pretty well again. I need to relax a little bit more and let the glider fly itself. Dave's good about this, with a bag of tricks to get people flying that only comes with decades of teaching.

The problem is, the weather wasn't totally cooperating. See, I took this while watching the yellow flag. When the yellow flag shows a crosswind, there's no point in flying. When the yellow flag shows wind going up the hill, that means it's time to fly. I spent a lot of time cajoling the yellow flag to move.

There are really two ways I can explain what hang gliding is about.

First, it's like in Avatar, when Jake Sully learns to fly a banshee. The glider becomes an extension of you, but it still has its own ideas about what it wants to do. And you need to have a gentle touch with it. My biggest problem is that I have too strong of a grip on the control frame. And the idea of being one with a pair of wings is incredibly liberating. I can assure you that, after having taken the wheel briefly of a single-engined aircraft, it totally doesn't compare.

Second, it's like the aviation form of cycling. See, you can buy a hang glider for a few thousand dollars. That's a bit more than a fancy bike, but not that much more. Even an ancient single-engined aircraft is going to be a LOT more than a hang glider.

mountain biking...

nobody@flickr.com (wirehead) — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 12:02:54 -0700

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I was trying to decide where to ride and it occurred to me that, even though the rainy season dragged itself out late, that it's been at least a week and that Fremont Older is likely to be dry enough. So I decided to go mountain biking instead of road biking.

Seattle Public

nobody@flickr.com (wirehead) — Mon, 03 May 2010 08:35:33 -0700

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10 shots stitched in Hugin.

This is the Seattle Public Library, which I love the funky shapes of.

Assemblage 23!

nobody@flickr.com (wirehead) — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 23:09:32 -0700

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espermachine

nobody@flickr.com (wirehead) — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 21:55:41 -0700

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Not sure what to think...

nobody@flickr.com (wirehead) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:44:32 -0800

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Coming off the mountain

nobody@flickr.com (wirehead) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:09:40 -0800

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Week 10: Warmed by a scarf Mrs. Wirehead made...

nobody@flickr.com (wirehead) — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 17:15:13 -0800

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I went up into the mountains for a snow vacation. To take some pictures and have some fun and stuff.

See, living in Silicon Valley gives you the option of a nice snowstorm, but not the requirement. When I lived in Ohio or Illinois or Connecticut, every winter brought snowstorms. And shoveling snow. And stuff.

But if you want to go and see the snow, while living in California, you just need to drive up into the mountains. So it's more of an option than a requirement. And it's been a while since I've seen some good piles of snow.

There's one big difference. They don't salt the streets out here and they require that you have tire chains. I keep wondering if I really need them, but if you don't mount 'em, they'll write you a ticket.

Most of my snow gear lives in the pockets of the down coat I grab whenever I'm headed to snow country. But Priti has been a good bad influence of late, which has caused Mrs. Wirehead to get a loom and this is one of her scarves.

It was warm and snuggly. And since Mrs. Wirehead was feeling sick and didn't make it, it was a good substitute.

We went snowshoeing. For me, the first time. That is basically what happens when a photographer reads Galen Rowell and realizes how many of his great shots were taken while out on a big outdoorsy hike somewhere in often extreme conditions. You start to want to bike and hang glide and hike and climb and otherwise explore. Because you might be able to coax a woman to come over and pose naked with a jar of pickles... but you won't coax a snow-covered conifer into your living room for a shoot... and if you do, it probably means you need to check to make sure your insurance is paid up.

Snow!

nobody@flickr.com (wirehead) — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 15:56:50 -0800

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Chains required

nobody@flickr.com (wirehead) — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 15:32:17 -0800

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Stop and shoot the flowers

nobody@flickr.com (wirehead) — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 15:18:05 -0800

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Off to the mountains

nobody@flickr.com (wirehead) — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 13:39:34 -0800

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Old St. Mary's in Nicasio

nobody@flickr.com (wirehead) — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 19:48:07 -0800

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I had to actually put my feet on the ground to take this one. It's a pretty church.

Break time

nobody@flickr.com (wirehead) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 09:53:49 -0800

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A bunch of us stopped in Olema to resupply. There's, of course, a certain art to picking up foods that fit well in the back pocket of your jersey that happen to give you the sorts of things you need while riding.

Mission peak bagged

nobody@flickr.com (wirehead) — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 11:10:44 -0700

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Christmas creep

nobody@flickr.com (wirehead) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 18:55:21 -0700

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I do remember my RA in college, over a decade ago, talking about how he duct taped a Christmas tree to the ceiling one year... and how, other than the problem of how not to get charged for damages, that if we'd want to modify our Christmas traditions, that suspending a tree from the ceiling was a great idea.

So, on one hand I cheer that.

But mostly I'm pissed off because it's not even Halloween yet...

Water stop

nobody@flickr.com (wirehead) — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 14:16:25 -0700

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I love this cute little water faucet along the side of page mill road, positioned just perfectly for refilling on hot days. I tend to think that, in a bike-friendly world, there would be more of these.

rainbow!

nobody@flickr.com (wirehead) — Thu, 27 May 2010 19:35:31 -0700

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God added: "This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come, of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you: I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, I will recall the covenant I have made between me and you and all living beings, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all mortal beings. As the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and recall the everlasting covenant that I have established between God and all living beings--all mortal creatures that are on earth."

Genesis 9:12-16, New American Bible translation.

I don't believe the literal interpretation of Genesis that the great floodgates of the sky were opened and all on the Earth except what Noah had in his ark perished.

I do tend to believe that the rainbow is just a very sophisticated physical effect. It's the light being refracted through raindrops.

Nonetheless, rainbows make me happy. And because I've spent enough time studying the bible, I do tend to see it as a reminder that we won't get flooded again.

And maybe the bible is serious. After all, the predicted theories of sea level rise do not predict that there's enough water to actually flood every last piece of land.

hiking

nobody@flickr.com (wirehead) — Sun, 23 May 2010 11:30:04 -0700

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absinthe

nobody@flickr.com (wirehead) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 17:07:29 -0700

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