Fire Updates: - - - 9:30AM Sunday

Fire updates from me are here
and the Nugget News Paper Updates are here.

Early Mysterium Photos

Well I only got a few from Thursday, so it was just me and Leh And Ran.
Ran has more fotos uploaded here.
We managed to amuse ourselves by goofing around in dowtown Spokane at the usual spot where I was introduced to Tropical Sno.





The
Infamous
Clock
Tower















My personal Favorite:





















Now there is a story here:
Lehsa is amazing.
I had forgotten.
When Lehsa is out and about walking, for some reason she watches where she is going.
(Novel idea? Maybe I should try it!) ;o)
So she tends to alwasy find things on the ground that other people over look.
In Toronto she was alwasy finding the most random and interesting things on the ground almost every place we went.
So of course, she finds a Tiara inscribed with the wearer's title.
Ran being the uninhibited lad that he is, dons the crown immediately.
;o)


And I love this picture which is one that Ran took, because, when we first walked in I really loved the colours on the walls and the mattes The green is a very rich, buttery kind of green and the copper frames really made the colours pop. It was cool.

Add about this picture? Hey! What the heck happened here? I look like a hobbit! I am not that short! If I look like this then I am getting platform shoes and going on a diet! This looks like the old movies where you had to put the scope on the projector at the cinema - excpet that you forgot to put on the scope. Everybody was ...welll...gah! Do I REALLY look this squat?
Ciminitely!

And I appreciate Ran taking this photo.
I only regret that I won't get to share Disks with Zadok at the edge course on Sunday. :o(

The Mysterium that was not : Updated

Well, Mysterium ended up being a 24 hour event for me.
:o/
The Forest Fire that cropped up on Monday in my home town, spread wildly on Wednesday putting the neighborhood of Crossroads on Evacuation Alert. (2-3 miles from downtown Sisters)















Before : Three Sisters Mountains and Llama Ranch accross from the school.
After: See here, and here.


Ealier in the week the local Fire Chief requested additional crews and tankers, but only recieved one tanker and half the crew he requested. Fires rage all over the west, and resources are taxed.
As of Friday at 4:30 I spoke to the local sherrif's dept monitoring the fire and evacuation information, and when asked how many tankers were on hand at that time, the answer was still "one tanker." (!!!!! Hellloooooo??!!)
However, as you can see by this photo, there are at least 2 in the air over the llama ranch. Rumours are in abundance and even the media can't seem to get a grasp on the facts. Even our local Bend television station doesn't have the most up to date info.
Par example:
I met a man on the way back from Spokane, at a gas station.
He was from Bend.
He told me that the City of Sisters and two other surrounding communities had been evacuated. I knew he was bogus because I had been watching the feeds from the Newpaper located in the heart of town, and they are updating straight from the fire lines, but it shows how much inaccurate information is out there.

Thursday Crossroads was evacuated, as was the adjacent Edgington area.
Now Tollgate, City of Sisters, and my neighborhood on the East side are ready to evacuate.
We have everything we can fit in the suburban, staged in the garage and ready to be loaded.

For this reason Mysterium was, for me, a one day event.

HOW I GOT THE NEWS:

I was teamed up with Deg and his Dad and Lehsa on the photo scavenger hunt, which was delivered to the Hotel Lobby by the Mysterious F'li, some time late Thursday night or Friday AM.

We had stopped for lunch at Chili's when my histerical daughter phoned me, saying that we were evacuating and she was home alone.
Ok.
Did my blood pressure just go through the roof?

I spent the remainder of the afternoon in my hotel room watching for updates at our local newspaper's website. (nuggetnews.com) they were updating every hour or so, as info trickled in from the fire management stations. When the winds picked up, and the Black Crater Fire was upgraded to Priority Status, that is when I made the call to get on the road.

Thanks to everyone who helped me get packed up and transferred from the hotel room to the car. (They say it takes "a Village to Raise a Child?" Well it apparently also takes one to get a blabbering nitwit from her hotel room to her car!) ;O)

Thanks to Sr388 and Brandy, Alahm and Oscy for the Power Foods and Jolt Gum, and to Ran for the giNORMOUS Energy drink. I drank half of it, and then got really shakey and twitchy going through Ritzville - but it worked!
Alas, but only for so long.


(DISCLAIMER: The following is a maniacal recounting of my bizarre antics on the drive on the way home. Many activities were concocted by me, as tools to help me remain awake and alert, and under the influence of Energy Drinks and Jolt Gum - none of which I have EVER tried.)

Once again I missed my turn off at Ritzville, and wasted about an hour and a half of drive time. (!) This put me home about 3:30 am.

Despite the "energy" coursing through my veins at what might be considered toxic levels for some one of my stature, there were moments of extreme drowsiness.

You know the kind....
when you suddenly look around you and think,
"Hmmm, I am HERE already?
How did I get here? I don't remember driving here."

At such times I would turn on the radio and amuse myself by singing loudly and wrong words to many songs on the oldie station.
It occurred to me to try to immitate Fred, of B-52's fame.
Fred has this amazingly bizarre style of talking instead of singing.
If you have ever heard the B-52's then you know his odd style.
Anyway, Karen and Richard Carpenter's "We've Only Just Begun" came on about that time so I amused my self for a mile or two by backing them up, as only "me-being-Fred" could do.
That went on for quite a few songs.
I tried doing it with a country station but failed miserably and gave up.

Instead I turned on some goofy talk radio station and hurled insults at everyone.

I got out and ran around the car at a few rest stops to wake myself up.

I ran around between the aisles at a convenience store/gas station and slipped on some standing water and fell down. That managed to keep me awake for a good long while.

Around 2am, and coming down the home stretch, I became bleary eyed and rolled down all the windows and yelled at other drivers (usually truckers) going the opposite direction and yelled to the songs on the radio.

I laffed at my own jokes - which at this point were unrecognizable as jokes, or any other form of intelligent communication I am sure - but the end result was that these freakish attempts at mania succeeded in keeping me awake (along with Jolt Gum and BooKoo Energy Drink).

About 3 miles from home, the stars began to disappear and the air became "foggy."
Ash fell like snow in some places.

I left everything locked in the car.
Went into the house.
Kissed my daughter on her head and went promptly to bed.

I will go through my 16 hours worth of photos and upload the meager few that I have.
I will dream of my friends as they enjoy each other's company, and I can square with that because if I had stayed, I would have remained a basket case, worrying about home and hearth.

Have fun you guys!

Heat, Indeed

Seems that things are getting a tad warmish around Mih's end of the Continne Grand. Can't say that I'm totally surprised, actually. For someone who spent most of his life in Columbia, SC (Motto: "We're Not Just a Southern City Built On a Swap Anymore!") I could never take heat, less with the addition of humidity that only the southeast and, conversely, the Pacific Northwest can provide in copious quantity.

Now can I have a popsicle?
Please?!

2:45 and the temp is still rising...

Mysterium Arrival Departure Charts

I turned an excel doc into jpeg’s for easier viewing/printing.
It depicts some of the arrival and departure times for those who have mentioned such things on the Lysts.
If you want your time(s) listed, then click on the COMMENT option at the end of this post to contact me, and I will plug those figures in.
This will enable any who want to, the opportunity to meet up at the airport and ride the shuttle, share a taxi, walk, or steal a car together.
(actually these last 2 are not sanctioned by The Lyst Admin’s and are both poor choices of transportation.)
;o)

(Click the image to see the full, readable view.)

Arrivals:













Departures:












Queue has kindly provided the link to the Spokane Airport Map/Directions.

The Excavation : UpDated

I have processed the first of the fotos of the dig site the girls and I were at last week.
They foudn something on this trip, but we are not yet sure what we have.
It did generate some interest from the Team Leaders though, which was cool.

We get to progress to the research stage now.
:o)

Todays Politically Inflammatory T-Shirt Design:

Comes to us from the creative Genius we call "Babs."

Ash Grey T-shirt is here

White fitted T-shirt is here

Baby Doll Style T-shirt is here

And womens white T-shirt is here

Newly fixed Camera records amazing wildlife

In an unprecedented act of rebellion,
Rover tells #2 to piss off and then leaves
the confines of "The Village" in search of a
bucolic alpine-meadow lifestyle,
seen here, here and here.

Wonderful, Glorious Joy of Joys!

The latch inside the battery compartment of my camera broke off, and I have since learned that this is typical for this particular model. (Getting a new battery cover/lid will not help since the piece in question is a molded part of the inner compartment.)
I had purchased this camera from a friend, and had only had it for 3 months when it broke.
I was heart broken.

Today, I made a startling discovery which will help any other owners of the Nikon Coolpix 990, overcome the frustrating battery latch issue.
My amazing solution is too incredibly, studpidly simple.
It is called : (drum roll if you please, Maestro...)

" Tripod Plate. "

It screws into the bottom of the camera so that one can go with or with out a tripod. On the Coolpixx 990, when the plate is screwed into the bottom of the camera a significant portion of it covers the battery door - holding it down firmly.
To change batteries, all one must do is simply unscrew the plate.

Yay!

It is SOOOOO elementary!

But I am SOOOOOO happy!


:o)

Local Excavation

So the girls and I are on our way out to participate in a regional archaeological excavation.
Its kinda cool, you show up in your grubbies and work a small area down to about 6 to 10 inches in depth.

Kinda cool.

So anyway, I am out for today with that, tomorrow I fill in for a local retailer and then Wednesday I have an "abstract wilderness" shoot back up at the Tam MacArthur Rim location.

It is shaping up to be a busy week already.

So my availablility will be sporadic.

two new Cafe Press Items

Well, I ahev two new items at Cafe Press.
A black t-shirt and a girls capped sleeve jersey.
I only did the two garment styles becasu that is what wa requested but I will be adding other shrit styles in the next day or so.

The black shirt is in Beta

And the Nessie shirt I designed expressly for Scout and her friends.
(You will need to click the larger view option for the nessie shirt.)

mih-

Well slap me hard...

...and call me stupid but,
I went and did a job and the client has bogued out. ( I think)
So this artisam comes to me and says I need to you slap together this 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 black and white ad for this quilters magazine for me. The deadline is Monday July 10th. SO I send him the proofs, he makes the corrections. I make the changes and *poof!* where is he? Its like he evaporated. Does this person even exist?

Boy oh boy...
have I got an invoice waiting for HIM!

;o)

Dang!

Oh Lehsa,Lehsa, Lehsa!!!

You slay me!

Lehsa shares with us the pitfalls of not knowing English.

Thanks Leh!

Sound File is updated

This is my Voice Mail recording for the rest of this week.