Category Archives: News & Reviews

After our vacation

week at the Bear’s Lair, we drove home
by way of Mono Lake,
Mammoth Mountain,

Devil’s Postpile and Rainbow Falls,
and Yosemite.

To get there, we drove on highway 108 from
Pinecrest
over Sonora pass (elevation 9625 feet) through the

Emigrant Wilderness and past the
Marines’ Mountain Warfare Training
Center. We ate lunch at the historic
Bridgeport Inn (formerly
the Leavitt House where
Mark Twain stayed).

After lunch, we drove past a big fire at Lee Vining, then walked around the
Panum Crater, near
Mono Lake. Panum is an ancient volcanic cone with great splashes of black and
gray obsidian and pumice rising in spires in the center. Unfortunately, some
aggressive wasps have built their nests in the spires. When my nephew
Daniel was stung, we did not try to go further in to see more of the cone.

After Mono Lake, we drove to the town of Mammoth Lake and our hotel. The next
day, we hiked to Devil’s Postpile and Rainbow Falls. We took the park bus from
the
Mammoth Mountain ski resort to the Devil’s Postpile trail head because
of our truck’s suspension problems. Sadly, John could not come with us because he
was working with the truck repair shop. The Postpile is an amazing cliff of
dark grey basalt columns that do indeed look like many-sided posts.

Throughout this area are historical markers by the road. Most of these
informative signs are cast in metal and set in rock mounds to protect them
from weather and traffic. Here is the text on one at Sonora Pass:

SONORA MONO TOLL ROAD / Oldest of the trans-Sierra emigrant trails to
California is spectacular Sonora Pass crossed by Highway 108, second
highest (9,626 Feet) of all highway crossings of the range. The Bartleson-Bidwell
Party, with mules, horses and oxen, made the first crossing on October 18,
1841. This route was not attempted by wagons until 1852. “Grizzly”
Adams took the trail over Sonora Pass in April, 1854, and reported “On all
sides lay old axle trees and wheels…. melancholy evidence of the last
season’s disasters.” The present route first projected in 1862 was finally
completed as a toll road, due to the extreme cost, by Mono, Tuolumne, and
Stanislaus Counties in 1865. It was said to take three weeks for a six-horse
team to make the round trip between Sonora and Bridgeport. / PLAQUE DEDICATED
SEPTEMBER 10, 1983 / BODIE CHAPTER NO. 64 / MATUCA CHAPTER NO. 1849 /
E CLAMPUS VITUS

It was interesting to compare the mammoth statue at the Mammoth Mountain
ski resort to the stuffed elephant we saw at the Washington D.C.
Smithsonian Museum
of Natural History in June.

Ascending to Sonora Pass

Paul reading Sonora Pass marker

Matt and Jessica

Descending from Sonora Pass

Marines Mountain Warfare Center

Lee Vining, Tioga Lodge fire

Mono Lake from Panum Crater

Panum Crater Rocks

Climbing inside Panum Crater

Devil’s Postpile

Paul on top of Devil’s Postpile

Basalt Posts

Rainbow Falls

Successful Hikers, Rainbow Falls

Mammoth Mtn Again

Mammoth Mountain Statue

Stuffed Elephant

On to Yosemite

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

We got back on Tuesday from our annual camping trip. Every year since 1993,
my family has vacationed at the

Lair of the Golden Bear, the family camp managed by the
U.C. Berkeley Alumni Association.
The Lair is in the Sierras near
Pinecrest.
There are 3 camps within the Lair: Gold, Blue, and Oski. Most families renew each year
for the same tent in the same Lair week of the 12 summer sessions.

In over 50 years of Lair camping, each week has developed its own style and
traditions. Our family is always well represented in the 10th week Camp Blue Review –
the Lair’s Wednesday night talent show. This year, Jessica sang “Che Faro Senza
Euridice” (an aria from Christoph Willibald Gluck’s

“Orpheus and Eurydice” opera), Matt did gymnastics: splits and walking on his
hands, and the whole family participated in our own five minute skit called
“Hamlet with Hats”.

After our week at the Lair and despite a
tire blowout and suspension hose failure on our truck, we drove home
by way of Mono Lake,
Mammoth Mountain,

Devil’s Postpile and Rainbow Falls,
and Yosemite. Here
are some Lair photos, more to come!

Camp Blue Sign

Jessica, Matt, Paul

Bear Crossing Sign

Eleanor and Daniel in the Art Grove

John painting Hamlet crowns

Hamlet props

Jessica sings

Matt does the splits

Hamlet with Hats

Hamlet with Hats

Aspen Meadow Appaloosa

Paul

Jessica

Matt

Aspen Meadow

Paul’s Lair Birthday

Paul driving his Grandma

Packed to go

Last Picture with Oski

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

My teenage kids have been helping my mother photograph some of her
art collection this summer. One of the items which got mixed in with the
Mexican folk art is a
music box I bought her years ago in San Francisco’s
Chinatown. (I wrote on

December 03, 2007 about our annual trips to Chinatown.) This small
music box is typical of the odd and charming mixed-culture goods available
there.

The music box is black with a gold rim, it plays a
can-can tune and
features a skeleton wearing a red hat, gloves, and shoes, juggling two
striped balls. The cut paper skeleton dances energetically in his black
shadowbox when the music plays. The skeleton is like a Mexican
Day of the Dead
figure set in the European context of a music box.

Image Copyright 2008 by Paul Dickinson Goodman

Every year since 1993, we have vacationed at the

Lair of the Golden Bear, the family camp sponsored by the
U.C. Berkeley Alumni Association.
The Lair is in the Sierras near
the little town of Pinecrest.
We are getting ready for our annual road trip now. Our SUV will have six people in
it, plus our stuff in the used
“Yuppie Wagon” (a small enclosed trailer with a polyethylene shell) we
just bought. My friend Laura and her son J.R. are driving their car in caravan with
us. My brother Pete is driving up with his family from Southern California.

The Lair provides the tent (canvas top, wood floor and half walls), 3 meals
a day, arts and crafts and sports and campfires, so we just have to get there and
settle in. Part of my job is to make and manage The List of Stuff.
Here are some of the items we are planning to bring to the Lair:

Regular stuff
- a flashlight for everyone (with fresh batteries)
- bedding: sleeping bag, pillow, etc.
- fitted sheets to cover plastic mattresses
- clothes: including shorts, jeans, bathing suits, sweatshirt, jacket,
hat, hiking boots, hiking socks, water sandals, etc.
- 2 big towels for everyone (a bathing towel and a swim towel)
Other stuff for each person
- reading material, songbooks
- camera, extra batteries, charger
- day pack or fanny pack for hiking
- sunglasses
- sunscreen
- bug repellent
- canteen or hiking water bottle
- toiletries in bag or caddy
- personal medicines as needed
- money for snacks, movies, etc.
Stuff for everyone:
- games (especially "Wheel & Deal", "Scrabble", and "Dread Pirate"), dice, cards,
poker chips, game rulebooks, etc.
- Christmas lights to decorate tent
- tent chandelier, reading lights, extension cords, etc.
- alarm clock
- mirror
- ice chest, water dispenser
- drinking glasses
- cheese board and knife, wine opener
- laundry supplies and quarters, clothes line and pins
- step stool
- folding chairs
- headboard
- futons
- pup tent
- rug
- trash bags
- clay, clay tools, glazes
- white clothes to tie dye or paint, extra rubber bands for tie dye
- camelback water pack and water filter
- picnic blankets
- walkie talkie sets
- paper towels
- hammock
- binoculars for birding and stargazing
- basic tools: hammer, nails, screwdriver, etc.
- clothes hangers
- rope
- medicine chest, first aid supplies
- bear mascot
- extra batteries
- laptops and chargers
- solar garden lights on stakes (to mark the trail for trips to the head in the dark)

I am sure I have forgotten something… I think John wants to bring his
portable N-scale model train layout so he can program it between other
activities. When going camping, I feel like I am packing the Rat’s luncheon-basket in
Chapter 1 of Kenneth Grahame’s 1908 The Wind in the Willows:

“… after a short interval [the Rat] reappeared staggering under a fat, wicker luncheon-basket.

`Shove that under your feet,’ he observed to the Mole, as he passed it down into the boat. Then he untied the painter and took the sculls again.

`What’s inside it?’ asked the Mole, wriggling with curiosity.

`There’s cold chicken inside it,’ replied the Rat briefly; `coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscresssandwichespottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater—-‘

`O stop, stop,’ cried the Mole in ecstacies: `This is too much!’

`Do you really think so?’ enquired the Rat seriously. `It’s only what I always take on these little excursions; and the other animals are always telling me that I’m a mean beast and cut it VERY fine!'”

Here is our Yuppie Wagon, waiting for its first Lair trip:

Image Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

This is the wonderful time in summer when everything is blooming
here in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. One of my
favorite flowers is the Resurrection Lily. If you don’t know what
they are, you might see the papery yellow bulbs not doing anything all
Spring and early Summer and think they are dead. The strap-like
green leaves have long ago grown, dried up, and been
cleared away. Then, this big brownish stalk quickly rises high
and produces a beautiful cluster of pink lilies. What a delight!

Resurrection Lilies are formally called Lycoris squamigera and are in the
Amaryllis Family. They are also sometimes called Naked Ladies (because they
have no leaves).

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

I mostly write about my husband John Plocher working on WP668, our backyard caboose.
Here are pictures from two of his more modern activities last week:

OSCON

John represented Sun and the
OpenSolaris Governing Board (OGB) at the
Open Source Convention
or OSCON in Portland, Oregon. He came home with books, fun loot (I liked the dolphin
toys with Sun on one side and MySQL on the other, and the EFF.ORG “Defend
Blogger’s Rights” tshirts), plus vague stories of late night inflatable sumo wrestling
suits…

John’s Badge

OSCON Loot

Van Lindberg’s IP Law

ServoBells

John was inspired by the
J. D. Barnhart’s “Ruby on Bells” RAD demo to make and document his own
Arduino ServoBells,
with wine glasses borrowed from Sun Solaris Senior Director Kathy Jenks. Here is his
technical music generator (note the use of chopsticks, tape dispenser, push pins and
other ready materials):

John and his ServoBells

ServoBells

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson