Golden Gate I

here are some pics of the approach to the golden gate bridge, heather said she has never been across it, realistically, its just a bridge, but, its also a monument to the perseverance and ingenuity of people, lets build a bridge across a body of salt water, on unstable rocks formations, in a major earthquake zone.




the toll booth (no toll northbound)



here are some pics of the approach to the golden gate bridge, heather said she has never been across it, realistically, its just a bridge, but, its also a monument to the perseverance and ingenuity of people, lets build a bridge across a body of salt water, on unstable rocks formations, in a major earthquake zone.

Golden gate II

here is a vid of the last half of the brige, not real exciting, but it was an amazingly beautifull day:) it has been raining off and on for a week at home, but it was sunny and 60 deg in sanfran



this last is an oops, i thought i had turned the camera off, but aperently i had turned it to video and hit the start recording button, so it recorded several minutes of my computer bag and the passenger seat ;) until the memory card was full

come here daddy

so im in the back room, watching the news and jacque comes running back to me, "come here daddy" "what do you need sweetpea" "I'll show you" (actuall syntax, quoted from a two year old), she had put her baby dolls down for a nap

!!!KABOOM!!!

our magnolia tree is in its current spring explosion of petals and color





shrapnel

hey baby.......

some wild turkeys that visit near the office to the drilling rigs, the pic with one turkey right in the middle is the dominate male, he had just folded his plumage back down when i took the pic, he was getting kind of randy

sunrise

here is a pic of the sun hitting the steam column coming out of the muffler, but not reaching all the way down, made part of it glow, thought it was pretty cool:)

more work

another video of someone else working, tripping pipe after a failed fishing attempt, they couldnt even get the fishing tools down to the fish, gotta run back in with a mill and try and grind the hole open bigger, question is, what is causing it to get too tight, and is it worth trying, i want to come home

yummie

this is what happens when you get three people, who love food, and one of them happens to own the resturant your sitting in, and its closed for the day, and your all drunk on the different wines you all have been drinking, dont know what was in it, but it was really really good ;)

hmmmmmmmm

where is everybody at?

growth

this is what happens when you loose your razor for two weeks (in my computer bag(*sigh*))

Hypocrasy

here is a brief geology/mineralogy lesson, the greenish rocks in the foreground, are serpentinized peridotite, not a big deal you say? well, if this outcrop of rock occurred in topeka kansas, they would cover the area with a temp building, bring in a hazmat team and remediate all the asbestos, one of the primary minerals in serpentine is chrysoltile, the source mineral for asbestos, out here its as common as chert is in kansas, just too much to take on ;)

$MONEY$ pt 2

just how much money? well, that there is 86,000 pounds of steam per hour, so, figure 960 btu's to convert one pound of water at the boiling point into one pound of steam (82,560,000 btu's)(this is an underestimation, the steam is actually super heated, and has more energy available, and that is offset by inefficiencies in the production of electricity). Now there are approximately 3412 btu's per kilowatt hour, so that leaves us 24196 kilowatt hours, lets say 24k just for a round number, therefore, the steam you see blowing out of that muffler represents enough energy to run 24,000 homes, how much is your electric bill each month?

wine, anyone?

and this is what happens when you drop a couple hundred thousand pounds of drill pipe down a two mile deep hole, now, it doenst that that much weight or that deep of a hole to do this to drill pipe, drill pipe works only in tension, never in compression, this is what happens when it is compressed, it may look wavy in the pic, from perspective, but what they are is 32 foot long cork screws

working for your money

here are some guys who work for a living, that steam blowing up out of the hole is 224 degrees, the boiling point up here is 209, so thats superheated steam, a good blast of it will melt flesh (yuck!), not to mention that all of them have saftey glasses on, and they fog up really bad in that. poor saps.

$MONEY$

drill pipe

here is what they look like new

catchup (in any media)

yes, i know, ive delayed posting pics for a few days now, internet access and lack of sleep are finally working themselves out so here is my pic to catch up on everything ;) can you guess what the pic is of?

a plethora (si el guapo, i know what a plethora is)

well, i'm off to work again, nice long travel day, 3.5hrs of flight time sitting in seats WAY to small for me, next to people in the same boat(coach plane seat), at least i have been in worse places, but i wasnt feeling well to begin with, the pain from the seats was making me nauseous, so the guy next to me on the second leg was prolly hoping if i popped, that id could make it to the airsickness bag(ps. i didnt pop), the first leg was over ks, so id dint even bother to tak pics of big brown squares and slightly less brown circles (also, i was in the emergancey exit row over the wing, and most of the view would simply have been studies of a boeing 737 wing control surfaces).

here we are over palmdale california, yup, thats desert down there


about 200 miles from oakland over the san joaquin valley, way off in the distance, you can see the snow coverd peaks of the sierra nevadas


a pic of the bay (not sure which one it is, there are three or more near sanfran) with a bunch of tankers waiting on a terminal to unload (most dont show thier plimsol line, so they are full)



a couple of pics of san fransisco, one of these years im gonna stop and have lunch there, all i seem to do is drive through it.

Pt 2

here is a pic of the steering wheel of my rental car as i pull into calistoga (we just watch an episode of dirty jobs with mike rowe, he had to prep some of the mud for one of the mud baths they have here) this is more of a camera fumble than anything else, i wanted a pic of a sign blocked by the truck of rancho calistoga (an inn) but it was time to stop the car instead


one of the nicer houses on the hillside, most look like they could have been transported straight from hicksville arkansas, the house has a nice view of a vineyard on the other side


a pic of a vineyard further down the road, next too...


summer's winery, not doing much now except watching the paint dry, clean tanks and get ready to train vines as the grow on the grape trellises

pt 3

this is the old faithfully geyser in calistoga.... it shoots a whoppin six feet into the air, its more a hot spring than a true geyser, but hey, its the biggest they have. they also hide it behind a bunch of plants and fences, and charge admission to see it.


this is a view of calistoga (you can see the roofs in the middle background of the full sized picture) and some of the vinyards around there, as i climb out of the valley up highway 29 twards middletown, its a fun drive in a car that can take cornners and climb steep grades.... its real exciting in a jeep wich does neither quickly (btw, im in a monte carlo le, which does both great)


last, and i feel the least, im at work, yes thats snow, it does that in parts of california ;)

heatsink

another pic of lacey sleeping, go figure, they say cats sleep 50% of thier lives.... i think lacey is somewhere around 75%