My name is
David Robins:
Christian, lead developer (resume), writer, photographer, runner,
libertarian (voluntaryist),
and student.
This is also my son David Geoffrey Robins' site.
Alaska #8: Relatives; safely home
News, Photography ·Sunday August 31, 2008 @ 14:55 EDT (link)
20080830: (Williams Lake, BC to Abbortsford: 296 miles.)
We left the Vanderburghs at 0912; the power was still out. We stopped at Tim Horton's 0927-0937 to get donuts, and again for gas at Lac La Hache. Since my battery had run out on the way up, we stopped at 108 Mile House ranch to get photos 1035-1049.
We reached Boston Bar at 1324, got gas, changed; radio indicated one of the tunnels was closed (truck wreck Sailor Bar) but it was open to alternating traffic when we got there; good thing: there aren't really any alternate routes to highway 1 (the Trans-Canada). It took us 40 minutes to get past (1330-1410, passed the truck at 1351). At 1437 we got to the Flood-Hope Road exit on highway 1 West out of Hope, and at 1525 we drove into visitor parking at my Uncle John and Aunt Sharon Sutherland's condominium complex.
We had a good talk, and they gave us a great dinner, and took us for a walk at the the nearby monastery (St. Clare's, in Mission).
20080831: (Abbotsford, BC to Duvall, WA: 113 miles.) We left in the morning at 1016, waited at the border at Sumas at 1020-1045 (again, no problems, just a queue), and arrived back home at 1325.
Total distance driven: 5644 miles (9083 kilometers).
Books finished: Polgara the Sorceress.
Alaska #7: Mile 0; Jasper National Park; Alberta
News, Bad Drivers, Photography ·Friday August 29, 2008 @ 22:39 EDT (link)
20080828: (Fort St. John, BC to Jasper, AB: 370 miles.) Up at 0910 and had breakfast at a small restaurant next to the Best Western at 0948 (the hotel gave us discount coupons). We looked at the map and decided to take the opportunity to drive through Alberta, specifically through Jasper National Park, which is north of and contiguous with Banff, which I'd been to when I was working in BC several years back. My Uncle John (Sutherland) had emailed us directions to their place and we printed it (no charge) at the hotel Internet station. We left the hotel at 1122 and arrived at Dawson Creek visitor center at 1234. I spared you the photo of the giant beaver (it was next to the lamps pictured below; squint and you can see it in the reflections).
Dawson Creek is, as the photos indicate, mile 0 of the Alaska highway (BC-97 in BC, YT-1, AK-2). We missed it on the way there, since we took a slightly different route (highway 29); when we reached it, we had driven the entire length of the highway. We picked up some maple syrup for the Vanderburghs at the gift shop; not a great choice, but the selection was uninspiring.
At 1308 we left Dawson Creek heading towards Grande Prairie, AB via BC-2, arriving at the visitor center at 1450. We tried to reserve a site at Jasper National Park, but the parks system doesn't take same day reservations. At 1526 we pressed on heading for Jasper on AB-40 via Grande Cache.
Construction at Smoky River, 1719-1722; got gas in Grande Cache. We met up with highway 16 and turned southwest heading into Jasper National Park (and back towards BC; a small part of the park, including part of the highway 16 corridor, is in BC). At 1941 we arrived at our campsite in the park; fortunately were able to get one without a reservation: site C36 at Pocahontas. We cooked stew and coffee, and bought firewood and had a fire; it was a nice night, only rained a little while we were sleeping. The site was possibly the nicest all trip, although the one in Fort St. John was nice too and the wood was delivered (but the ground was gravel instead of dirt).
20080829: (Jasper, AB to Williams Lake, BC: 339 miles.) We got up at 0730, and finished breakfast at 0900; we drove up to the Miette hot springs (0922-1013). It's a very nice facility, $6/each I believe, with showers, and in-ground pools in which to enjoy the springs.
There were goats and big-horned sheep by the roadside; I stopped to take pictures of course; we were done taking pictures at 1058; we stopped at 1300 to try to call the Vanderburghs (to say we were running late), but nobody was home. Got gas again in Jasper.
We played some passing games with a twit in a silver Hyundai driving through the park at about 1625; AB EEJ 080; Honey would pass him, then he'd speed up and pass her, then he'd drive slowly again and she'd pass him, etc. What a pinhead; pick a speed already.
The scenery through the park was beautiful even though it was a bit overcast. There were several stops and detours in the park that I wanted to make, but we just didn't have the time. It started raining heavily at 1633 near Clearwater, BC; we stopped at 1700 in Little Fort to phone the Vanderburghs to let them know we'd be late. At 1805 we arrived at the junction of BC-97 and 24 (the 24 is a fairly short and slow east-west road) and headed north to Williams Lake (doubling back, since there isn't a more northern route). Since we knew we'd missed dinner (1800) we stopped at McDonald's in Williams Lake (1915) and got to my aunt and uncle's at 1938. Their children were there for a bit. We watched the Olympics with them until the power went out; we went to sleep fairly early, at 2239.
Alaska #6: Leaving; little sleep; NWT; Forts Nelson and St. John
News, Photography ·Wednesday August 27, 2008 @ 22:19 EDT (link)
20080825: (Fairbanks, AK to Whitehorse, YT: 592 miles.) The return trip officially begins. It's a fairly straight shot southeast from Fairbanks to Whitehorse. We got up at 0750, showered, had breakfast with the Hernings at 0830, and headed into town at 0949. I took a photo of the sign on the way out (1157). Ran into a construction delay (1330-1344), stopped for gas in Tok at 1543 ($4.699/gallon, which seems obscene as I'm writing this in December, when prices are at around $2.50). More construction 1620-1634, 1648-1654. Went uneventfully through customs at 1930, and got to Destruction Bay, Yukon at 2149 (back on Yukon time, i.e. PST). Stopped again for gas near Haines Junction at about 2330.
Knowing the state of Whitehorse lodgings (rare, expensive, and decidedly average), we decided to keep driving through the night; we stopped at a Tim Horton's in Whitehorse at 0119, sat down and had coffee and donuts, and left at 0148. Speaking of donuts, at one of the small towns we came through, there was a cardboard cutout of a police cruiser at the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) outposts, with glow in the dark decals.
20080826: (Whitehorse, YT to Fort Nelson, BC: 591 miles, plus 170 miles round trip detour to NWT.) We slept 0450-0730 at a rest area and then again 0853-0912. At 1010 we got to the Watson Lake visitor center, got gas again at Petro Canada, and stopped again to rest at Old Mile 585 rest area (1132-1325). Short stops in a car don't replace a night of sleep very well.
At 1400 we stopped for lunch, reheating the last of the great Thai curry from Fairbanks with our camp stove. Gassed up again at 1800 in Toad River; stopped and fixed coffee (with the camp percolator) 1920-2030.
On the way back I wanted to drive into the Northwest Territories, just to say we'd been there; we didn't want to take the on the way up, but going back we took the Liard Highway (BC-77) and drove to the NWT and back, about 85 miles each way. It's not a great road: pitch dark, no lights, no road lines, 110 km/h (about 70 mph), lots of potholes and (signed) gravelly areas, and the occasional big truck oncoming. There wasn't much to see when we got there: I got a photo of the sign then we headed back, getting back to the Alaska Highway at 1227.
20080827: (Fort Nelson, BC to Fort St. John, BC: 236 miles.) Got gas at 0100 in Fort Nelson; slept 0338-0606, drove a little more, slept 0710-1021; arrived in Fort St. John, got gas again, reached the info center at noon, and registered at the Best Western. Ate at McDonald's, back to the hotel at 1320, and called Uncle Alan and Aunt Shirley in Williams Lake and Uncle John and Aunt Sharon in Abbotsford, to let them know when we'd be there. It was nice to sleep in a hotel for a night (and use their whirlpool/sauna).
Alaska #5: Countryside, Hernings, UAF museum
News ·Sunday August 24, 2008 @ 22:25 EDT (link)
20080824: (Denali National Park, AK, to Fairbanks, AK: 130 miles.) As I said, it was cold, so we got up very early: before 0600, and we were packed at 0630. The tent was a little damp, so we'll need to dry it later. We slept an hour by the roadside at about 1100. We found a chapel, Countryside Bible Chapel, and attended services there until 1330. Their numbers were few but their hearts were open; we had several offers to come for dinner and even stay overnight. We took up Bill Herning and his wife on their offer, and went out to a Chinese buffer (Mayflower) with them 1400-1455; we insisted on paying since they were letting us stay the night.
We had to run some errands: our first stop was to return to Beaver Sports to return our stove that melted. I wasn't sure how they'd take it, or even if they'd accuse us of damaging it on purpose, but they were very accommodating: they too were surprised that a Snow Peak stove would bend like that (our other stove is Snow Peak too, an older model but still sold, and we've never had any trouble with it); they gave us a full refund. We picked up some camping plates and cups there and some more fuel.They have excellent selection and service and I would highly recommend their Fairbanks store to anyone going up that way.
We stopped for gas at Safeway then headed out to the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) museum. We spent most of the afternoon there, looking at various artwork: paint and sculpture, and the huge Alaska Room with history and natural wonders of Alaska exhibited. Alaska has many amazing artists in all sorts of media, and natural wonders abound.
We left UAF at 1920 and headed to the Hernings' place, which wasn't far from the church. I took the opportunity to clean out the car, and we did laundry, until 2036. We read the Our Daily Bread together; we tried to call Whitehorse to book a hotel, but didn't have much luck. Slept @ 2230.
Alaska #4: Denali, Mount McKinley, ice on the tent
News, Photography ·Saturday August 23, 2008 @ 22:44 EDT (link)
20080823: (Fairbanks, AK, to Denali National Park: 130 miles.) Up 0830; had coffee in the room; checked out 1029. Got an oil change at Jiffy Lube, since we'd put a lot of miles on the car going up here and didn't want any trouble going to Denali or on the way back. Headed out for Denali National Park at 1102.
Arrived at the Park at 1430, registered and got a campsite (Savage River site 21, the furthest-in "car camping" campground). We reheated our Thai food for lunch; the supports on the new Snow Peak stove we'd picked up in Fairbanks warped while we were cooking (still managed to heat up both our pots, but titanium's really not supposed to do that). We had our tent up and sleeping bags set up by 1620, and went driving: we drove out to Savage River, and walked most of the Savage River Loop trail; Honey hurt her ankle half way. The scenery was beautiful:
Later we drove out to the park entrance, and made various stops for pictures. We weren't the only ones: there was a lot of slow and stopped traffic on the park highway. Most people used the regular cutouts to stop and take pictures, but one twit decided he was so important that he'd just park in the middle of the road.
When we got to the store at the park entrance, they had no firewood (so we bought chocolate instead). We saw a West Virginia licensed purple van, but never made contact. Arrived back at our campground at 1928, and drove back to the store at 2028 to see if they'd gotten any firewood in, but they still hadn't. Saw a lot of moose driving back; back at the site 2221, went to sleep, coldest night of the whole trip, ice on the tent in the morning.
Alaska #3: Fairbanks: UAF, Three Bears, Pike's
News ·Friday August 22, 2008 @ 22:57 EDT (link)
20080821: (Deadman's Lake, AK to Fairbanks, AK: 259 miles.) It was too rainy for a fire, so we skipped breakfast, broke camp, and left at 0911. Second construction of the day (first didn't require us to stop, just follow a pilot car) was at 1112-1117; 47 miles of construction with patches of mud. Stopped 1105-1235 at the Tok Alaska Public Lands visitor center, and booked a night (22nd) at Pike's Waterfront Lodge. Stopped 1317-1358 at a parking area near the Chief River to cook some ramen on our stove, but it was too windy to get the water to a boil; probably used half a fuel canister trying. Stopped for gas at 1600 and reached the end of the Alaska Highway, where it becomes the Richardson Highway. More construction 1620-1623. We did manage to cook some lunch in a sheltered picnic spot at Big Delta State Historical Park (1545-1612), and then had to wait for another pilot car (1612-1634). Got a great photo out of the window of trees in fog while waiting.
We arrived at the Fairbanks visitor center at 1825 and spent about an hour there looking at brochures and using the computers to check and reply to email. The visitor center is on 1st Avenue, but parking is across the Chena River, which seems more convenient for thieves than for tourists.
We found a place to eat (Siam Thai, had curry, very good), finished there at 2036 and drove out to a Bed and Breakfast that we'd reserved earlier: Three Bears (rightmost photo above shows a roofed picnic area with our green cabin in back). It was nice; the cabins were quite close together, and a bit untidy-looking, but they were comfortable and the owner was friendly, and a Christian; she even knew of the assemblies we were looking to attend Sunday.
20080822: (Fairbanks, AK.) Up at 0820, got ready; the owner gave us breakfast (waffles with fruit, bacon, and coffee) at 0900 on the porch of the main house; we left 1016.
The temperature as we drove by the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) was 104°F. We stopped in to look around (I like looking around at universities; Honey not so much). We checked email at the library, walked to the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center, but had missed the tour,
We stopped at Beaver Sports at 1344 in town to buy an extra stove (so we could both reheat our Thai food) and fuel for both stoves (Snow Peak fuel, both Snow Peak stoves), 2 cups and bowls (they had better camping flatware than we'd brought); we stopped at a used bookstore nearby too (found some Dragonlance books we were looking for), and looked for gun stores in the Yellow Pages. We went over to Pike's Waterfront Lodge and unpacked at 1530, and found a chapel for Sunday: Country Bible Chapel on Old Chena Hot Springs Road.
We ate at Pike's Landing, next to the Lodge; had steak for an early anniversary dinner. I wasn't that impressed (for one, I asked for medium, and it was well done; for another, the steak wasn't that great), but we got an acceptable Champagne, and Honey enjoyed her steak. If we're in town again we'll try the Pump House. Later (2130) we got some ice cream at the hotel.
Alaska #2: Willam's Lake, BC to Yukon and Alaska
News, Photography ·Wednesday August 20, 2008 @ 23:47 EDT (link)
20080818: (William's Lake, BC to Charlie Lake, BC: 424 miles.) Up at 0730, had breakfast with Alan and Shirley, leaving at 0903, heading east on H-20 back to H-97N. We got to Prince George at 1240, stopping for lunch and gas and to call our agent, heading on at 1500. Here we hit our first construction delay, fortunately only 5 minutes. Stopped briefly in Chetwynd to get some soft drinks for the cooler; there we turned north on H-29, meeting back at H-97 (now the Alaska Highway; it starts in Dawson Creek, which we visited on the way back) at Charlie Lake. We went south a little way on H-97 to go into Fort St. John for gas, stopping for about half an hour (1825-1855) at their info center to ssh to my server, check email, and look at campgrounds. We decided to camp at Charlie Lake Provincial Park campground (arriving 1058, site #37); the rates were reasonable and the sites were clean, although they were gravel and not dirt, and a little exposed. Our stove fuel ran out, but we were done cooking for the night so we planned to pick up a refill when we could.
20080819: (Charlie Lake, BC to Watson Lake, YT: 547 miles.) Up 0800, packing and getting breakfast (generally cold cereal and hot drinks: tea or coffee). 62°F in the morning, going down to 47°F at 1150 near Buckinghorse River; 1244 drove through Prophet River, looking for fuel and not finding any. Fortunately we tried to keep at or above half a tank, since we expected fuel stations to frequently be few and far between on the Alaska Highway. 1322-1328, construction wait (56°F) and escorted by our first pilot car (no good reason; it wasn't dusty or difficult); 1345-1347, another wait. Gas at 1400 in Fort Nelson ($1.529/L, or $5.79/gal.), and we stopped for lunch at Subway and at the info center, heading on at 1450. Stopped at a scenic overlook 1536-1541; more construction 1622-1628, 1710-1713 (and pilot car); stopped at 1849 in Liard River for gas, heading on at 1905. We saw several moose and buffalo off to the side of this section of the highway. We reached Watson Lake at 2102, stopped for gas again at 2131, looked for hotels, didn't find any, and decided to drive on to Whitehorse through the night.
20080820: (Watson Lake, YT to Deadman's Lake, AK: 600 miles.) At 0148 we entered Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon: color us unimpressed. We searched, but there was no room at the inns, except for the "Family Inn" on 4th, which was overpriced and marginal at best (I'd have certainly felt better if Canada had thought to include a right to keep and bear arms in their constitution). We took a room at 0236; full rate even though we had to be out by 1100. We stayed up until the deadline, too, sleeping until 1000 and then showering etc. and calling our agent from the lobby pay phone (we'd promised to check in daily, not that it ended up doing any good).
We also had to call our bank: they were sporadically denying my debit card, since it was being used so far from where we lived: they did fix it for us, after getting a raft of personal identifying information. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that: on the one hand, it's good if it does put an early stop to use of stolen cards; on the other hand, it does nothing if the card is used in the area in which it's stolen. If we have to tell our bank when and where we're going on vacation, it's a privacy violation. Unfortunately I don't think it's possible to opt out of this "protection"; if one could, then it would be acceptable; otherwise, it's a bit looming and Big Brother.
We left Tim Horton's in Whitehorse at 1124, got gas, and headed on, sleeping briefly at a rest area. At 1330-1350 we walked the "Spruce Beetle Trail" at the same rest area, and learned why so many of the trees were brown and dead-looking. More construction with a pilot car at 1449; gas. We started running into frost heaves, or hillocks in the road caused by underground frost, at 1630. They didn't impact driving too much. More construction 1734, got gas in Beaver Creek at 1828, and got out our passports. We stopped at the Alaska sign and border flags and monument 1854-1859; pretty dull day for pictures (got some on the way back).
At Alaska customs 1901; waited in line about 15 minutes, then told we had to dump our firewood (we'd bought more than we needed at Charlie Lake) in Canada; done that at 1920, no problems crossing after that, despite most of my documents being at the U.S. passport office. Stopped in at the first info center (for Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge, which we were driving through) at 1937, but it was closed. Various stops for pictures culminated in picking a campsite at Deadman's Lake, a free campground on the Refuge, at 2035. Little bit of rain, but not too much for cooking; met a nice couple from Fairbanks, which might have been what convinced me to change our plans to go there instead of Anchorage (also, Anchorage was a fair bit farther). Slept 0004, up 0800 (Alaska time, as are all times until we leave the state).
Alaska #1: Anderson Creek, Chasm, 108 Mile Ranch, Vanderburghs
News ·Sunday August 17, 2008 @ 22:30 EDT (link)
20080814: Packed up food and camping gear for trip. Countered the offer on the house.
20080815: Mileage before trip: 12819.
20080816: (Duvall, WA to Boston Bar, BC: 200 miles.) We left at 1425 and stopped for gas in Bellingham (cheaper than Canada); we reached the Canadian border at Lynden at 1644 (temperature: 93°). (Lynden is only open 0800-0000, unlike most of the other crossings which are 24-hour.) I was a bit worried since my US passport hadn't arrived before we left, my Canadian passport was expired, I'd had to submit my original certificate of naturalization (which is illegal to copy) to apply for a passport. But we had no trouble. We followed the Trans-Canada (H-1) and arrived in Hope at 1803 (84°—still Fahrenheit even though we're in Canada, since I was reading from the Corolla's sensor). We camped at Anderson Creek, south of Boston Bar, arriving 1920. On looking at campsites we went down a rocky hill toward a nearby bridge, but there were no sites there, and coming back up spun the tires and kicked up some rocks, but no damage was done. We paid $16 for a fairly nice site, although there were a lot of noisy trains during the night. We had our tent (Iron Mountain, purchased in Memphis a few years back), cooler, lots of canned stuff (we had stew that night), and my Snow Peak stove. Played some Phase 10, but it got too dark to play at around 2030; we boiled water for hot chocolate and then went to bed.
20080817: (Boston Bar, BC to William's Lake, BC: 185 miles.) Up 0815, cold cereal and hot tea for breakfast; we drove out of the campground at 0952, stopping for gas and lunch (Subway) in Cache Creek at 1154 (77°), which is where we turned of H-1 and onto H-97, which becomes the Alaska Highway further north. Gas was $1.399/L, which is about $5.30/gal. (to compare, gas in Bellingham south of the border was $3.69/gal.). At 1320 we stopped at Chasm Provincial Park, which is literally a hole in the ground: it's down a side road a few miles and then there's a place to park and you can look over a fence at a chasm.
At 1500 we made 108 Mile Ranch; we looked around for about half an hour. They have some historical buildings (with preserved rooms inside), etc. We arrived at my Uncle Allen and Aunt Shirley Vanderburgh's at 1647; we'd talked to them the previous week and they kindly said we could stop in. Their children (Ken, and David and Margaret) and grandchildren were there for dinner (roast beef); we swam in their pool after dinner, and watched the Olympics with them.
Broadstripe, the worst ISP in the world
News, Technical, Guns ·Tuesday August 12, 2008 @ 22:45 EDT (link)
"We must needs attack them, then," Mandorallen asserted. "Our cause is just, and we must inevitably prevail.""That's an interesting superstition, Mandorallen," Barak told him, "but I'd prefer to have the numbers on my side."
—The Belgariad, David and Leigh Eddings
The quote reminds me a lot of the upcoming election. The conservative libertarian cause is just (stop robbing the people and "redistributing" their income), but we need the numbers on our side to prevail, which also requires some people to vote for justice against their own financial self-interest, which, as Tytler tells us, probably isn't going to happen: the special interest groups all want our money, and the politicians are happy to buy votes from them.
20080805: Mowed lawn.
20080806: Called Broadstripe about bad Internet performance (lots of outages, drops; I have a ping task, and we lose a lot of packets); they said they'd send someone (same day even), but, as usual, promises, promises: Honey never saw anyone and the connectivity's still wretched. Went shooting; cleaned gun afterwards (overdue since I skipped it last time).
20080807: Sprayed weeds; filled sprayer tank all the way (4 gallons); couldn't use it all. Costco.
20080809: Today and yesterday Broadstripe (the worst ISP in the world) called back and said they were going to "re-provision" the modem, but it hasn't done any good; as I type this, I'm in the middle of a 40+ minute outage (I have no idea how long it will go) and there have beep periodic half-hour outages over the past month at random times (they're at 3.58% downtime, or 7h33, for the month of August thus far, and that doesn't properly reflect the disruptive effects of their frequent 1-minute outages to e.g. VoIP calls). Boycotting the Olympics, since the Chinese suck; we need to nuke them before they get too rich and powerful and start doing the evil that they'd really like to, but can't because of fear of military retribution.
Honey's friend Rochelle (from school) was here from noon to around 2200; played some games: Quiddler, Scotland Yard, Boggle, and a new one she brought, Carcassonne (I won, so I rather like it… lots of monasteries; I didn't clue in to the farmer bit until late). She made custard, which was good (last time I made it it was very lumpy, so I watched closely… heating the milk is apparently a good idea, and watching/stirring it constantly).
20080810: Went to the Monroe gun show, last attempt to find a few good holsters locally; didn't find anything. I'll probably order a few Galco holsters I've been looking at on OpticsPlanet. Honey and I had discussed automating one or more players in Scotland Yard (in particular, "Mr. X" first), so we started entered the connections of the big graph that makes up the game map (199 numbered locations, connected in various ways by (bidirectional) taxi/bus/rail and a few boat connections that only Mr. X, the suspect pursued by the detectives, can use).
20080811: Went shooting, 18' and 27'; getting better, still not sure I could pass the Tennessee range test since they require 70% in the 8-ring at 25 yards (75' for those keeping score at home). Although, I can only find one place that states those requirements, so it might depend on the instructor. ZX checked in a few fixes (mainly ones that we'd worked on together; I'm not sure if he's been too long in academia—a master's really isn't that long—but he isn't learning as quickly as I'd like).
20080812: Cleaned Glock.
I was watching Judge Judy and it gave me some ideas about sensible ways to handle alimony and child support; I already discussed alimony in a previous rant (internal link, sorry), but I didn't say much about child support. The deal today is that the man (it's couched as e.g. "non-custodial parent", but even when that isn't the man, the man is doing most of the paying) has to pay to support the child in "the manner to which they are accustomed." Total rot. The state should only require the man to pay to give the child (their equal half of) basic food and shelter—necessities. If the child wants to do better, perhaps they should elect to live with the father.
The state should not generally be interfering, but I support them ensuring that the child gets necessities covered by those responsible for it (and not the rest of the taxpayers), but anything above necessities is the choice of the parent, as it was pre-separation: just because a parent chose to spend more on a child at one point doesn't mean they should be forced to keep that up forever. Also, I support adjusting the amount for location, but, and this will seem odd at first, based on each parent's location. So, the father isn't punished for moving to Arkansas where, presumably, incomes are lower (and cost of living also commensurately lower), but nor is the mother rewarded for moving to California or New York. I am adamantly against the amount paid out depending in any way upon the income of either parent: that is prejudicial and socialistic and morally and ethically bankrupt: amount should depend on cost, which depends primarily on location, full stop.
Books finished: Belgarath the Sorcerer.DVDs finished: Thinner, Stargate: The Ark of Truth, Charmed: The Final Season, The Invisible, Ocean's Eleven.
Brigade Days at Fort Langley
News, Photography, Guns ·Monday August 4, 2008 @ 00:16 EDT (link)
The old sheriff was attending an awards dinner when a lady commented on his wearing his sidearm. "Sheriff, I see you have your pistol. Are you expecting trouble?""No Ma'am. If I were expecting trouble, I would have brought my rifle."
20080801: Code complete for co-authoring separate locks part; as I said to MS, now I can go from getting compiler errors to runtime errors, and so I did, starting with needing to handle the case of pushing locks with no existing server lock data. Went shooting at SVRC after work; made excellent progress. Still concentrating on the Glock. Last time I switched to shooting full (17 round) magazines rather than just 10 rounds; it seems to be easier to develop a rhythm. Shot some good groups; still fairly close range; I'll work up to distance later.
Little birdies got stuck in our heat pipe today (above the microwave; doesn't seem to do very much, but goes up to the roof); I put on gloves and lifted them out (first the baby, then the mother); the baby was too terrified to fly so we put it out on the deck; the mother flew into a wall, fell down with its feet up, then fluttered itself upright and headed out the door; it later came back for the baby.
Google maps has recently gone downhill: several features are gone (ability to drag waypoints around on the directions pane) and information is missing (they only have total time and distance; time and distance between waypoints is gone, which is a real pain). Other people have noticed too. It seems they later fixed the time/distance issue, but you still can't collapse sets of directions nor drag waypoints.
20080802: We planned out our day, and this is how it went: left at 0930, arrived at the WAC gun show in Puyallup at 1030; didn't buy anything, but handled a few SIGs that I liked. Left there 1200 and got to Port Orchard at 1320 (were aiming for 1300, but called ahead and said we'd be late) to buy a Nikon SB-800 flash and SC-29 sync cord from a guy (via Craigslist). Update: no box (fair enough; he thought he was keeping the items; not everyone keeps boxes like I do), and no soft case or stand, which the manual says were included. He seemed like a good guy, so although the possibility of it being stolen had run through our heads, given various factors that doesn't seem likely.
Honey has decided she wants to become a veterinarian, so she's going to do biology; she was going for a business degree, but fortunately most of what she's done so far (first/second year) will transfer. We stopped by the local vet. on the way home today and asked a few questions; she was very helpful.
A note on composition: these entries are frequently composed in OneNote™, even though of course markup doesn't work there. Sometimes if I get behind (hint: I'm adding this entry to the site in September), they pile up, but eventually I work the queue, pick a group of items, and put them online, fine-tuning formatting when I do.
20080803: Open house, 1300-1600. We left for the day at 0800, to attend Brigade Days at Fort Langley, BC; arrived around 1130, no trouble at customs either way (I was slightly worried because my Canadian passport had expired, and although I'd applied for a U.S. passport, the application required them to take my original certificate of naturalization (which is illegal to copy, as stated plainly on the face of the document, although the lady at the passport office at King County District Court made me two copies when I asked), so my expired Canadian passport was all I had; fortunately the Canadian guy took it with no comment on leaving, and the U.S. guy asked if I had an extension and waved me through when I told him my U.S. passport was pending, without even asking to see any sort of receipt, which I had).
The fort was great; we saw the Simon Fraser arrival by canoe, greeted by a black powder salute; got lots of pictures, stopped for ice-cream around 1500 on the way out in the town of Fort Langley (picture a smaller Niagara-on-the-Lake); went to Wal-Mart and bought 3 DVDs with the two Canada-WalMart-only gift cards we had from Rebecca and Theo from Christmas ($15 x 2 cards, plus $5 in change I had and a few bucks on the credit card). Visited Grandma Martin in Abbotsford on the way back; got there about exactly at 1700 as we'd said (we expected to be &plusminus; 1 hour), and took her to Swiss Chalet; left around 2015, got home 2300.
Stupid signs: I've already ranted about the egotistical Don't Drink and Drive: In Memory of … signs; another one for the list is "Safe traffic area" signs and their ilk, like the ones posted along I believe it was the Trans-Canada highway in BC. Just because you post it don't make it so, and it's yet another distraction for drivers. Every sign that a driver has to read (or just mentally categorize) takes away their attention from the road, so useless self-congratulatory signs are dangerous as well as annoying.
<Previous 10 entries>
We reached Boston Bar at 1324, got gas, changed; radio indicated one of the tunnels was closed (truck wreck Sailor Bar) but it was open to alternating traffic when we got there; good thing: there aren't really any alternate routes to highway 1 (the Trans-Canada). It took us 40 minutes to get past (1330-1410, passed the truck at 1351). At 1437 we got to the Flood-Hope Road exit on highway 1 West out of Hope, and at 1525 we drove into visitor parking at my Uncle John and Aunt Sharon Sutherland's condominium complex. 
20080825: (Fairbanks, AK to Whitehorse, YT: 592 miles.) The return trip officially begins. It's a fairly straight shot southeast from Fairbanks to Whitehorse. We got up at 0750, showered, had breakfast with the Hernings at 0830, and headed into town at 0949. I took a photo of the sign on the way out (1157). Ran into a construction delay (1330-1344), stopped for gas in Tok at 1543 ($4.699/gallon, which seems obscene as I'm writing this in December, when prices are at around $2.50). More construction 1620-1634, 1648-1654. Went uneventfully through customs at 1930, and got to Destruction Bay, Yukon at 2149 (back on Yukon time, i.e. PST). Stopped again for gas near Haines Junction at about 2330.
20080824: (Denali National Park, AK, to Fairbanks, AK: 130 miles.) As I said, it was cold, so we got up very early: before 0600, and we were packed at 0630. The tent was a little damp, so we'll need to dry it later. We slept an hour by the roadside at about 1100. We found a chapel, Countryside Bible Chapel, and attended services there until 1330. Their numbers were few but their hearts were open; we had several offers to come for dinner and even stay overnight. We took up Bill Herning and his wife on their offer, and went out to a Chinese buffer (Mayflower) with them 1400-1455; we insisted on paying since they were letting us stay the night.
We stopped for gas at Safeway then headed out to the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) museum. We spent most of the afternoon there, looking at various artwork: paint and sculpture, and the huge Alaska Room with history and natural wonders of Alaska exhibited. Alaska has many amazing artists in all sorts of media, and natural wonders abound.
20080823: (Fairbanks, AK, to Denali National Park: 130 miles.) Up 0830; had coffee in the room; checked out 1029. Got an oil change at Jiffy Lube, since we'd put a lot of miles on the car going up here and didn't want any trouble going to Denali or on the way back. Headed out for Denali National Park at 1102.
20080821: (Deadman's Lake, AK to Fairbanks, AK: 259 miles.) It was too rainy for a fire, so we skipped breakfast, broke camp, and left at 0911. Second construction of the day (first didn't require us to stop, just follow a pilot car) was at 1112-1117; 47 miles of construction with patches of mud. Stopped 1105-1235 at the Tok Alaska Public Lands visitor center, and booked a night (22nd) at Pike's Waterfront Lodge. Stopped 1317-1358 at a parking area near the Chief River to cook some ramen on our stove, but it was too windy to get the water to a boil; probably used half a fuel canister trying. Stopped for gas at 1600 and reached the end of the Alaska Highway, where it becomes the Richardson Highway. More construction 1620-1623. We did manage to cook some lunch in a sheltered picnic spot at Big Delta State Historical Park (1545-1612), and then had to wait for another pilot car (1612-1634). Got a great photo out of the window of trees in fog while waiting.
20080819: (Charlie Lake, BC to Watson Lake, YT: 547 miles.) Up 0800, packing and getting breakfast (generally cold cereal and hot drinks: tea or coffee). 62°F in the morning, going down to 47°F at 1150 near Buckinghorse River; 1244 drove through Prophet River, looking for fuel and not finding any. Fortunately we tried to keep at or above half a tank, since we expected fuel stations to frequently be few and far between on the Alaska Highway. 1322-1328, construction wait (56°F) and escorted by our first pilot car (no good reason; it wasn't dusty or difficult); 1345-1347, another wait. Gas at 1400 in Fort Nelson ($1.529/L, or $5.79/gal.), and we stopped for lunch at Subway and at the info center, heading on at 1450. Stopped at a scenic overlook 1536-1541; more construction 1622-1628, 1710-1713 (and pilot car); stopped at 1849 in Liard River for gas, heading on at 1905. We saw several moose and buffalo off to the side of this section of the highway. We reached Watson Lake at 2102, stopped for gas again at 2131, looked for hotels, didn't find any, and decided to drive on to Whitehorse through the night.
20080820: (Watson Lake, YT to Deadman's Lake, AK: 600 miles.) At 0148 we entered Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon: color us unimpressed. We searched, but there was no room at the inns, except for the "Family Inn" on 4th, which was overpriced and marginal at best (I'd have certainly felt better if Canada had thought to include a right to keep and bear arms in their constitution). We took a room at 0236; full rate even though we had to be out by 1100. We stayed up until the deadline, too, sleeping until 1000 and then showering etc. and calling our agent from the lobby pay phone (we'd promised to check in daily, not that it ended up doing any good).
We left Tim Horton's in Whitehorse at 1124, got gas, and headed on, sleeping briefly at a rest area. At 1330-1350 we walked the "Spruce Beetle Trail" at the same rest area, and learned why so many of the trees were brown and dead-looking. More construction with a pilot car at 1449; gas. We started running into frost heaves, or hillocks in the road caused by underground frost, at 1630. They didn't impact driving too much. More construction 1734, got gas in Beaver Creek at 1828, and got out our passports. We stopped at the Alaska sign and border flags and monument 1854-1859; pretty dull day for pictures (got some on the way back).
20080816: (Duvall, WA to Boston Bar, BC: 200 miles.) We left at 1425 and stopped for gas in Bellingham (cheaper than Canada); we reached the Canadian border at Lynden at 1644 (temperature: 93°). (Lynden is only open 0800-0000, unlike most of the other crossings which are 24-hour.) I was a bit worried since my US passport hadn't arrived before we left, my Canadian passport was expired, I'd had to submit my original certificate of naturalization (which is illegal to copy) to apply for a passport. But we had no trouble. We followed the Trans-Canada (H-1) and arrived in Hope at 1803 (84°—still Fahrenheit even though we're in Canada, since I was reading from the Corolla's sensor). We camped at Anderson Creek, south of Boston Bar, arriving 1920. On looking at campsites we went down a rocky hill toward a nearby bridge, but there were no sites there, and coming back up spun the tires and kicked up some rocks, but no damage was done. We paid $16 for a fairly nice site, although there were a lot of noisy trains during the night. We had our tent (Iron Mountain, purchased in Memphis a few years back), cooler, lots of canned stuff (we had stew that night), and my Snow Peak stove. Played some Phase 10, but it got too dark to play at around 2030; we boiled water for hot chocolate and then went to bed.
20080817: (Boston Bar, BC to William's Lake, BC: 185 miles.) Up 0815, cold cereal and hot tea for breakfast; we drove out of the campground at 0952, stopping for gas and lunch (Subway) in Cache Creek at 1154 (77°), which is where we turned of H-1 and onto H-97, which becomes the Alaska Highway further north. Gas was $1.399/L, which is about $5.30/gal. (to compare, gas in Bellingham south of the border was $3.69/gal.). At 1320 we stopped at Chasm Provincial Park, which is literally a hole in the ground: it's down a side road a few miles and then there's a place to park and you can look over a fence at a chasm.
20080805: Mowed lawn.
20080809: Today and yesterday Broadstripe (the worst ISP in the world) called back and said they were going to "re-provision" the modem, but it hasn't done any good; as I type this, I'm in the middle of a 40+ minute outage (I have no idea how long it will go) and there have beep periodic half-hour outages over the past month at random times (they're at 3.58% downtime, or 7h33, for the month of August thus far, and that doesn't properly reflect the disruptive effects of their frequent 1-minute outages to e.g. VoIP calls). Boycotting the Olympics, since the Chinese suck; we need to nuke them before they get too rich and powerful and start doing the evil that they'd really like to, but can't because of fear of military retribution.
Honey's friend Rochelle (from school) was here from noon to around 2200; played some games: Quiddler, Scotland Yard, Boggle, and a new one she brought, Carcassonne (I won, so I rather like it… lots of monasteries; I didn't clue in to the farmer bit until late). She made custard, which was good (last time I made it it was very lumpy, so I watched closely… heating the milk is apparently a good idea, and watching/stirring it constantly).
I was watching Judge Judy and it gave me some ideas about sensible ways to handle alimony and child support; I already discussed alimony in a previous rant (internal link, sorry), but I didn't say much about child support. The deal today is that the man (it's couched as e.g. "non-custodial parent", but even when that isn't the man, the man is doing most of the paying) has to pay to support the child in "the manner to which they are accustomed." Total rot. The state should only require the man to pay to give the child (their equal half of) basic food and shelter—necessities. If the child wants to do better, perhaps they should elect to live with the father.
20080801: Code complete for co-authoring separate locks part; as I said to MS, now I can go from getting compiler errors to runtime errors, and so I did, starting with needing to handle the case of pushing locks with no existing server lock data. Went shooting at SVRC after work; made excellent progress. Still concentrating on the Glock. Last time I switched to shooting full (17 round) magazines rather than just 10 rounds; it seems to be easier to develop a rhythm. Shot some good groups; still fairly close range; I'll work up to distance later.
20080802: We planned out our day, and this is how it went: left at 0930, arrived at the WAC gun show in Puyallup at 1030; didn't buy anything, but handled a few SIGs that I liked. Left there 1200 and got to Port Orchard at 1320 (were aiming for 1300, but called ahead and said we'd be late) to buy a Nikon SB-800 flash and SC-29 sync cord from a guy (via Craigslist). Update: no box (fair enough; he thought he was keeping the items; not everyone keeps boxes like I do), and no soft case or stand, which the manual says were included. He seemed like a good guy, so although the possibility of it being stolen had run through our heads, given various factors that doesn't seem likely.
20080803: Open house, 1300-1600. We left for the day at 0800, to attend Brigade Days at Fort Langley, BC; arrived around 1130, no trouble at customs either way (I was slightly worried because my Canadian passport had expired, and although I'd applied for a U.S. passport, the application required them to take my original certificate of naturalization (which is illegal to copy, as stated plainly on the face of the document, although the lady at the passport office at King County District Court made me two copies when I asked), so my expired Canadian passport was all I had; fortunately the Canadian guy took it with no comment on leaving, and the U.S. guy asked if I had an extension and waved me through when I told him my U.S. passport was pending, without even asking to see any sort of receipt, which I had).
The fort was great; we saw the Simon Fraser arrival by canoe, greeted by a black powder salute; got lots of pictures, stopped for ice-cream around 1500 on the way out in the town of Fort Langley (picture a smaller Niagara-on-the-Lake); went to Wal-Mart and bought 3 DVDs with the two Canada-WalMart-only gift cards we had from Rebecca and Theo from Christmas ($15 x 2 cards, plus $5 in change I had and a few bucks on the credit card). Visited Grandma Martin in Abbotsford on the way back; got there about exactly at 1700 as we'd said (we expected to be &plusminus; 1 hour), and took her to Swiss Chalet; left around 2015, got home 2300.