September 2013 – Page 2 – Bus Driver Jim

Really?

Really. That’s a question I’ve been asking a lot lately, like when my hands don’t function properly or when events in my carefully structured time-sensitive universe seem off balance. It’s as if I’m talking directly to the entity in the sky that pulls the puppet strings around me, guiding my life towards it’s ultimate conclusion. (You know who you are :-)

It’s also something I say to myself when I pull stupid blogging blunders such as the seven minute Sunrise video I put up last weekend. What was I thinking? Even my biggest fan (Stephanie) said “I bailed after three minutes”.

So here’s my redemption: the same video sped up by a factor of ten. It’s now something you can devote about forty seconds to and then get on with your life. Really!

My Tower

I notice this tower in downtown Driggs frequently. It’s sitting behind Lynette’s Salon & Spa and just looks out of place. I took this shot today and then did some research.

Turns out it’s owned by Silverstar Communications, who just happen to be my cell phone provider, which means that’s where I get my stuff around here. You know, my phone and data stuff. It’s like, my tower!

Fullscreen

After a hectic summer with lot’s of time home and family visiting it’s nice to wake up to an empty house. Plus the cat of course, but she’s quiet…

I’ve been coding up my new fullscreen slideshow and I think it’s ready for primetime. It’s an Html5 variation on the smaller one I did a while ago and it will replace the Flickr slideshow I use now. I love having control of my stuff :-)

I’ve chosen the recent wedding slides for this demo.

Grand Sunrise

I drove Steph to the airport early this morning and took this shot at Stateline and Hastings. I also grabbed some video footage which should make it up to the cloud today.

Here you go, have a sunrise on me:

(Update: The video below is 7 minutes long, here’s one at 10x speed, only 40 seconds.)

Mounted

I got the new antenna up on it’s pole and tied down tight. A little remote sits on my desk which lets me adjust it’s center point if the snow and the wind move it. The underground propane tank next to it is full so there should be no need to trudge through waist high snow this winter to check the propane level or manually adjust the antenna.

Impulse

The digital antenna I bought a couple of years ago is worn out. It was great through tough winters, allowed us to go off the grid, and saved us a bunch of money.

Last Tuesday evening I bought a new antenna from Amazon. They were offering a thirty day trial of their Prime system for $79 a year and I finally bit the bullet. Wow, should have done this sooner! The antenna arrived here at noon today.

That’s two day free shipping and you’re moved to the top of the delivery schedule. We also watched a free movie last night. I think this is going to work out…

The antenna is sweet and well made. I’ve already got the amplifiers and digital tuner in place here in my office so it was basically just plug and play. The problem was, the plug didn’t fit. I need to get a smaller piece of pipe tomorrow to adapt to the pole.

So, in the meantime it’s sitting on the ladder pointing towards the transmitter up on Fred’s mountain. It’s only getting 2 channels now but I’ll have 10 by tomorrow.

SlideShow (Impulse)

Lighten Up

After two straight days of pontificating about local stuff I figure I better get off my horse and lighten up. Besides, 9/11 is heavy enough, so in honor of our military here’s an old Air Force plane I spotted landing at the Driggs airport yesterday…

Legrand Pierre

Legrand Pierre Ave is by far the most intriguing road in Teton County and most people here probably don’t know it by name. Several years ago I was taking a lady home to Miller Ranch, a relatively new subdivision at the time off Ski Hill Road. Her husband was the president of their HOA (Home Owners Association) and all the way to her house she bitched about this road that ran parallel to several homes within Miller Ranch.

The street was intended to be a downtown bypass that would catch all of the ski resort traffic coming in from the west and bring them directly over to Ski Hill Road. It ran right next to eight houses there and they were fighting it contentiously.

It actually would have been a cool road, but it never got developed. I took a couple photos today off of Ski Hill and then shot over to Hwy 33 where our brand new road to the Middle and High schools takes off. This is a sweet new two-lane with a bike path and guess where it ends up after you pass the Middle School? Yep!

That half mile stretch over to Ski Hill is barren land. The easements are there, if you can believe Bing and Google maps, just no road, and this got me to thinking. I can’t believe a few houses in a pretentious subdivision that loves to pollute their neighbors night sky with their stupid streetlights, could influence the construction of a major new artery.

The obvious swept over me the last couple of days as I prepared this post in my head. Most of the ski traffic heading to Grand Targhee comes in from the west. Not many people come over the pass from Jackson because they have two ski resorts of their own. If people diverted off Hwy 33 they would effectively be bypassing downtown Driggs!

The local business owners have probably been fighting this road for years and now that I think about it, they’re right. It’s a bad road. But why not extend the bike path on over to Ski Hill! It would actually improve the value of the Miller Ranch units.

Click the lower right question markers for photo specific maps…

SlideShow (Legrand Pierre)

Powder Brook

I’ve been watching this strange round mound being built off of Ski Hill road. It looked like a giant reinforced anthill until they put a sign on it. Now it’s even more of a mystery.

The Powder Valley townhouses are mostly second homes. The owners spend the winters elsewhere and return in the summer. It now appears that someone may have cut a deal with our local ski resort to turn these empty winter units into a short-term lodging extension of Grand Targhee! Check out this link…

Pure speculation on my part, but it makes sense. The resorts lodging fills up pretty quick in the winter and this would be perfect for family extended stays.

Slideshow

I’ve been working on a new HTML5 slideshow app today while watching the Seattle SeaHawks kick Carolina Panther ass. Both projects turned out well…

The app takes a Flickr Set ID and converts it into a cool controllable slideshow that I will eventually incorporate into my blog, replacing the current Flickr slideshow function.

If you wish to try it out, click here. The set I’m showing is this summers Victor 4th of July parade with 180 photos. Hover over the slides to pause, click a slide to show it full screen, and drag the slider to the right to slow it down. (Here’s the St. Anthony parade).

Update: We were going jump into our freshly filled hottub last night but the thunderstorm didn’t cooperate, so I just put the camera on it:

Teton Creek

Teton Creek is the largest of the headwater tributaries to our famous trout fishing river, the Teton. It’s a third of a mile from the house and when it’s flowing in the spring the roar becomes a part of our daily life. After the mountains drain their snowfall for the summer it exposes it’s underbelly of rocks and trees.

A few years back an unscrupulous developer took some heavy equipment into the creek and diverted it for his own purpose. Several lawsuits later, and some close calls with flooding, the county has moved back in to repair the damage. (details | video) We’ve been hearing the construction sounds all summer and today went over to check it out.

From our position on the creek it appears that the channel has been re-shaped and stabilized along with the addition of some bio-engineered native vegetation. Moving on down we encountered a riffle pool with a diversion off to the right.

SlideShow (Teton Creek)

Canyon Creek

The original Canyon Creek Bridge was built on Hwy 33 between Tetonia and Newdale in 1932. The bridge was 352 feet long and spanned a 120 foot canyon. It was replaced in 2008 by a new bridge built parallel to it.

I was driving the inter-city run between Driggs and Rexburg daily during the construction of the new bridge and I remember the traffic delays well. One day, as they were putting the finishing touches on the bridge, they directed both lanes of traffic onto the old bridge. I was stuck in the middle along with large trucks in both directions. The entire surface of the bridge was packed solid and not moving. I’m sure this 75 year old bridge was never designed to simultaneously hold all that weight, but it did.

I had visions of crashing down to my death as we sat there for ten minutes.

SlideShow (Canyon Creek)

Private Coach

Judging by the number of stoned idiots driving around here this afternoon I figure Paul Bunyan must have exhaled his bong hit over Teton Valley!

I also found his toy bus parked next to Driggs Tire.

SlideShow (Private Coach)

r.i.p. Nana

My sister laid her beloved companion Nana down yesterday after a long illness.

We first met Nana about eleven years ago when Steph, Riley and I made our big summer vacation trip down to California from Washington. We stayed at my sisters house in the Bay Area and I remember Riley playing tug-of-war with her. She was still fairly young then but quite a strapping young lady.

A few years later Steph and I made the move here to the Valley, following my sisters footprints. The first time I encountered Nana in their new big house she was very protective but quickly settled down after she realized (or remembered) that I was family.

We soon became good buddies and often played tug-of-war in her large yard.

Rest in peace Nana. You were well loved and now you are greatly missed…

Update: Steph mentioned that I had a photo somewhere of Riley and Nana playing tug-of-war back in 2003. Here’s proof that I keep everything:

Smokey Morning

I took this shot from our driveway during a particularly bad smokey morning recently. It rained here most of Labor Day and the smoke has thankfully been driven back into the ground. At least the fires are there and not here…