They're saying that Denver may hit the wettest June on record, and the reservoirs are at spillover capacity.
The rafting has been phenomenal, but what's even more encouraging is that may, just maybe, the dought that has plagued the Colorado high country since 1999, and which was at its worst in 2002, may be officially over. At least for now.
The terrible pine beetle blight that has ravaged north central Colorado pine forests was accelerated by the drought, which weakened mature trees and left them easy pickings for the bugs. What the heavy moisture will do in the mid to long term is, unfortunately, anyone's guess.
The spruce beetle blight mentioned in the piece linked above, also has some people worried.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Michael Jackson, RIP
I'd be remiss if, as one of millions of anonymous bloggers, I didn't mark the passing of Michael Jackson yesterday, from sudden cardiac arrest.
Put simply, my views: Jackson revived a music business that was struggling in the early eighties, but only a) delayed its demise, to b) insure its next decline would be permanent. Jackson's stature, ratcheted up by his various promotion machines, set a precedent for hugely over-paid entertainers - costumed, big dollar economic salvation machines - that contributed as much to the collapse of the music business as its own myopic tribulations with file-sharing and media evolution. Jackson's talent may have warranted his media-hugeness, but isn't that quotient that's impossible, really, to assess.
Looking at all the footage the media spewed forth last night, it occurred to me what a genuinely sad spectacle Jackson had become - immensely talented, but utterly and freakishly alien to the world that the rest of us live in. Weird, implausible, dysfunctional marriages...serial plastic surgery...costume intrigue...that weird kid thing....child abuse trial appearences in pajamas....or even the fact, weird itself, that he was the richest entertainer on the planet (including Sir Paul) in 1985, and died yesterday $400 million in debt.
Did he spend it all trying to buy the normalcy his dancing and singing lifted so many of us past?
Tragic for losing his life, whatever it was, so early, but his real contribution to the culture, in my view, pales beside that of James Brown, Elvis, Dylan and Louis Armstrong. He may be in that pantheon, but not at the top. He benefitted a great deal from those who came behind - and those who followed took little from Jackson that wasn't directly resultant from his own, unsharable talent.
RIP Michael. Here's hoping you find a place in heaven you never found here on earth.
Put simply, my views: Jackson revived a music business that was struggling in the early eighties, but only a) delayed its demise, to b) insure its next decline would be permanent. Jackson's stature, ratcheted up by his various promotion machines, set a precedent for hugely over-paid entertainers - costumed, big dollar economic salvation machines - that contributed as much to the collapse of the music business as its own myopic tribulations with file-sharing and media evolution. Jackson's talent may have warranted his media-hugeness, but isn't that quotient that's impossible, really, to assess.
Looking at all the footage the media spewed forth last night, it occurred to me what a genuinely sad spectacle Jackson had become - immensely talented, but utterly and freakishly alien to the world that the rest of us live in. Weird, implausible, dysfunctional marriages...serial plastic surgery...costume intrigue...that weird kid thing....child abuse trial appearences in pajamas....or even the fact, weird itself, that he was the richest entertainer on the planet (including Sir Paul) in 1985, and died yesterday $400 million in debt.
Did he spend it all trying to buy the normalcy his dancing and singing lifted so many of us past?
Tragic for losing his life, whatever it was, so early, but his real contribution to the culture, in my view, pales beside that of James Brown, Elvis, Dylan and Louis Armstrong. He may be in that pantheon, but not at the top. He benefitted a great deal from those who came behind - and those who followed took little from Jackson that wasn't directly resultant from his own, unsharable talent.
RIP Michael. Here's hoping you find a place in heaven you never found here on earth.
Desolation Canyon, reborn with an attitude
There's been a thread at the whitewater rafting internet forum Mountain Buzz for several weeks now, brimming with tales of rafters' first experiences with Joe Hutch Canyon Rapid, after a massive flash flood in Aug 2008 turned a splashy and straightforward Class II drop into a long, gnarly, technical, boat-flipping challenge, worthy of Class IV designation and, by at least one account, fully eligible for comparison to the keester-kicking Class IV's of the Grand Canyon.
Based on sheer guessing, there have probably been more flips (rafts, anyway) at this rapid in the last four weeks than the entire river has seen in years. It is now a full grade harder now, maybe more than a full grade, than anything else on the 84 mile run.
Deso, of course, was my old stomping ground with Karin - we ran the river together 11 or 12 times between 1992 and 2003, twice in 1999 alone. Neither of us were Class IV junkies, although we had done water at that level several times safely (Brown's Canyon, Main Salmon, Westwater), and my thoughts about the run now are tangled and unsettled.
I genuinely love the place - the vibe, the pace, the huge canyon expanse...and the whitewater, which for me was never more than I could really handle, and usually less than my rattle-prone sensibilities would stress over. We probably burned more worry calories over campsite competition and fretting about upstream winds than we ever did over the whitewater, and even now, a year and a half removed from my last trip down there, I can still describe the line at all the major rapids. It is unquestionably part of my history, a very significant vestige of my life with Karin, and a deep engraving upon my river-running DNA.
But this...wtf is this? The river is now essentially a III- run with a IV - IV+ rapid, just past dead-center of the trip.
Does it make me more excited to go back...or less? True enough, the stories I'm reading now are accounts of the rapid at 12-16K cfs, a level we never ran it at. What's it like at 2500 or 3000? Even 4000 - no rapid I could think of could flip my dunnaged boat by waves alone at 4000cfs.
And another piece of this is that fact that Sharon prefers (truly loves, in fact) the San Juan - a mellow, decidedly river-easier trip. And would be more than happy not to repeat our Sept 2007 Deso trip, which was troubled by weather issues and left her on the downhill side of ambivilent about the place.
We have no long river trips planned for the remainder of 2009, so at this point I'm just watching the thread, taking it in, accepting reluctantly the fact that the trip that Karin and I did so much is...changed, at least, and forever gone, at most.
Things change by degrees, this is changing by degrees. I cannot wrap my mind around the idea that I'll never go back there. But that may, in fact, be the case.
I just don't know.
Based on sheer guessing, there have probably been more flips (rafts, anyway) at this rapid in the last four weeks than the entire river has seen in years. It is now a full grade harder now, maybe more than a full grade, than anything else on the 84 mile run.
Deso, of course, was my old stomping ground with Karin - we ran the river together 11 or 12 times between 1992 and 2003, twice in 1999 alone. Neither of us were Class IV junkies, although we had done water at that level several times safely (Brown's Canyon, Main Salmon, Westwater), and my thoughts about the run now are tangled and unsettled.
I genuinely love the place - the vibe, the pace, the huge canyon expanse...and the whitewater, which for me was never more than I could really handle, and usually less than my rattle-prone sensibilities would stress over. We probably burned more worry calories over campsite competition and fretting about upstream winds than we ever did over the whitewater, and even now, a year and a half removed from my last trip down there, I can still describe the line at all the major rapids. It is unquestionably part of my history, a very significant vestige of my life with Karin, and a deep engraving upon my river-running DNA.
But this...wtf is this? The river is now essentially a III- run with a IV - IV+ rapid, just past dead-center of the trip.
Does it make me more excited to go back...or less? True enough, the stories I'm reading now are accounts of the rapid at 12-16K cfs, a level we never ran it at. What's it like at 2500 or 3000? Even 4000 - no rapid I could think of could flip my dunnaged boat by waves alone at 4000cfs.
And another piece of this is that fact that Sharon prefers (truly loves, in fact) the San Juan - a mellow, decidedly river-easier trip. And would be more than happy not to repeat our Sept 2007 Deso trip, which was troubled by weather issues and left her on the downhill side of ambivilent about the place.
We have no long river trips planned for the remainder of 2009, so at this point I'm just watching the thread, taking it in, accepting reluctantly the fact that the trip that Karin and I did so much is...changed, at least, and forever gone, at most.
Things change by degrees, this is changing by degrees. I cannot wrap my mind around the idea that I'll never go back there. But that may, in fact, be the case.
I just don't know.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Tehran spring
Iran's demographics are finally spinning away from the rote anti-Israel, anti-West, 'Great Satan' nonsense that have dominated the Iranian political mainstream since the Shah fell. Is Iran witnessing their own version of the Prague spring?
For the sake of the people there, one can only hope so.
For the sake of the people there, one can only hope so.
Dreams of the gone-before
Lengthy dream about Karin on Friday night, first in a few months, and longest in quite some time. She appeared to be in the company of others, but acknowledged me.
Then last night had another dream about her - shorter, centered around rafting - and another separate dream featuring Sharon's late husband Don. I would say his general demeanor toward me was grudging acceptance. I did tell him, to his face, that I thought he got a raw deal (dying young from cancer), and he seemed to appreciate that.
Odd - that I'd have two dreams of Karin on subsequent nights, and especially odd that I have a long and very detailed one about Don. Three years ago I would have struggled to mine this for significance - now, I'm reluctant to ascribe any to it, although do find it interesting.
Then last night had another dream about her - shorter, centered around rafting - and another separate dream featuring Sharon's late husband Don. I would say his general demeanor toward me was grudging acceptance. I did tell him, to his face, that I thought he got a raw deal (dying young from cancer), and he seemed to appreciate that.
Odd - that I'd have two dreams of Karin on subsequent nights, and especially odd that I have a long and very detailed one about Don. Three years ago I would have struggled to mine this for significance - now, I'm reluctant to ascribe any to it, although do find it interesting.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Roaring Fork
Nice day yesterday on the Roaring Fork, about 4400cfs, weather warm and breeze going downstream. A bit too fast for the six hours of driving it takes to do this run (ramp to ramp, 2 hours on the nose), but Cemetery was huge. First time in a wetsuit in how long?
Caught a bald eagle and its mate. So-so pic, always better in person. Clicking on the image for full-size helps a bit.
Scum
In my decidedly biased heirarchy of humanity, collection agencies lay somewhere between cannibals and child molesters, so it has been something of a trial that I have been receiving collection phone calls from Gap Visa for someone I've never heard of, on my cell phone.
This morning, I practically lost it with yet another Indian call center drone, telling them that I better not get another call from them in pursuit of their delinquint customer. Only to get another call not ten minutes later.
I intend to file a grievance with the State Attorney General's office if this keeps up.
This morning, I practically lost it with yet another Indian call center drone, telling them that I better not get another call from them in pursuit of their delinquint customer. Only to get another call not ten minutes later.
I intend to file a grievance with the State Attorney General's office if this keeps up.
Ozrics back in shape
Leaned over and remarked to the obvious Ozric Tentacles fan at the Fox show Friday night that it was pretty weird that the band - born and bred from the British Stonehenge/tie-dye hippy underculture a quarter century ago - was now a local band, having moved to the Fort Collins area last year. Friday was my third Ozrics show in about a year - they used to be the Band From Mars, sweeping in on bubbly synth flourishes once every three years or so.
But it does appear that they have scraped together a decent local following.
And sounding better as well - Ed's son Silas is filling in on synth for about half the set, and doing an outstanding job. I'd still like to hear Brandi loosen up a little on bass, but the band sounded much more together (despite a lengthy tech failure on Ed's rig) than last show, in the Fall.
Mooncalf, from the new album, was resplendent.
But it does appear that they have scraped together a decent local following.
And sounding better as well - Ed's son Silas is filling in on synth for about half the set, and doing an outstanding job. I'd still like to hear Brandi loosen up a little on bass, but the band sounded much more together (despite a lengthy tech failure on Ed's rig) than last show, in the Fall.
Mooncalf, from the new album, was resplendent.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Five years
Milestone, huh?
Unbroken road, broken and rebuilt...leading to the same place, but different.
Just trying to do the Walk of Life, Bear. Please stop in and say hello.
Medvědi navěky věkův.
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