Tuesday, August 04, 2009
snapshots from the road and electronic highway
As I intimated to my intimates not long ago, I recently took a bit of a road trip to north-central California for a bit of business. This involved my driving up the 101, out the 37, over the 80, and then up the 99 to Marysville; then out the 20 and through the levee roads up to the 5 and 505 back to the 80 home. (Yes, in California we provide numbered highways with definite articles, i.e., “the.” Also, we don’t call it “Cali.” Just so you can blend in better next time you visit.) I brought my camera, too, because I knew I’d be passing a few items of roadside interest I’ve wanted to memorialize for years.
Item one was something I’ve glimpsed from speeding cars as whipped along THE 37 past the Petaluma Marina, where the Petaluma River empties into the northern reaches of the San Francisco Bay. It’s a dinky little marina in the big empty flatlands, but outside one of the gates there’s an old rusted-out hulk of a dodge pickup truck. This was photographic subject number one.
Aside: seen on the 80 heading east, a truck from the “Pacific Mechanical Service” company. Their logo is an acronym. I think that’s a poor choice.
Subject number two is the world’s record holder for Smallest Mountain Range. When you think of mountain ranges, usually you think of things that are hundreds of miles from end to end, filled with dozens, hundreds, even thousands of peaks. The Rockies. The Sierras. The Caucasuses. They are epic. Except when you get to Sutter County, CA. There, you can find the Sutter Buttes, which are ten miles from end to end and top to bottom. The highest of them is about 2200 feet; the others are about 1,800. None are terribly tall, but they do make an impressive sight over the Sacto Valley ricefields and fruit orchards.
That’s them, end to end, the whole mess of ‘em, from the east and from the west. Pan out any farther and all you get is farmland. So let’s zoom in a little, instead.
One thing I didn’t expect during my drive-through was some kind of drilling operation with a flaming vent. Gotta love the flaming vents, right?
Aside #2: One of the “highway cleanup sponsor” signs out towards Marysville listed the sponsors as “Atheists and Other Free Thinkers.” And I say, God bless them all. That’ll show them!
Finally, just to round things out, here’s some visual input on how much my boys love computers. Even when they’re not actually connected to the internet, they surf like kahunas.
And, given the chance, Jesse will just take over the other ‘puter and go two-fisted:
Yeah, he’s 18 months old and doesn’t really talk yet. I’ll be in real trouble when he learns to code....
And that’s enough for tonight. I’m on vacation for a few days - 20th anniversary and all that. Hope this holds you for the nonce. Otherwise, get a smaller nonce. You don’t want any chafing. And I’ve cornered the market on nonce-salve.
