Monkey

We made a few things out of some nice cedar for the yard recently: a couple of compost bins, a raised planting bed, and a potting bench for Helen. I got all of the wood from Issaquah Cedar and Lumber and I’m really happy with it. They were very helpful. I ended up getting some 13′ rough cut 5″x5″ yellow cedar beams to make the planting bed. For the rest, I got 4″ or 6″ wide rough fence boards, all 4′ long.The compost bins are 4 feet square and 3 feet high, with the slats separated a bit to let air in. The front slats are removable to get material in and out more easily, and allow it to be turned. We put them out of the way near the fork in the road at the end of the driveway. We’ll see how they work out!

The planting bed is 9′ x 4′ x 15″ deep. The beams are on a thin bed of gravel, and we put about 3″ or so of gravel in the bottom for better drainage, then filled the rest with some nice topsoil. This took longer to build than I thought… leveling the site took some work, then drilling the beams and driving rebar through them and into the ground was entertaining when I ran into some rocks. It all worked out okay in the end, though.

For the potting bench we dried the fence boards then ran them through the planer and picked the nicest ones. The wood was for the most part fantastic: fairly clear, with a wide variety of grain patterns and color. We machined the boards we liked square and built the bench out of them plus a few cedar 2×4’s. We tested one so-called “clear” finish on a scrap board and didn’t like it, so I ended up using two coats of Helmsman Spar Urethane clear satin. It looks and feels gorgeous, and although finishing took way longer than actually building it, it was well worth it in the end.

I filled the truck up today and although the cheapest diesel I could find near us was $4.899, I consider it a bargain. Diesel has been more expensive that regular by about 20% for quite some time now, but now it’s only 15% more with regular being around $4.25 these days. Most places that sell diesel seem to have stopped raising the price at just shy of $5.00, while continuing to raise the price of regular. I think they are afraid to price anything at $5.00 because they don’t want the psychological impact when people see that, even if it’s not the kind of fuel they’re buying. I figure at some point they will let diesel go above $5.00, but until then I’ll be happy with “cheaper” fuel

Oh, and the total bill? $147.37. It took ~30 gal of fuel… apparently I have almost 5 gal left when the needle says empty.

I went to Alpental today with Simon. Yes, today… May 17th. We’ve had an especially cool Spring and all the extra snow we had this winter has remained up there. Coverage at the area was amazing for this time of year. There were some bare patches starting to form, but really only where snow has trouble accumulating during the season, or in places where it seems it had been groomed a little thin. The snow banks in the parking lots are still above the cars.

It was amazingly warm up there today. It hit 70 at the top, with an inversion making it cooler at the base. It felt much, much warmer than that standing in the sun. We slathered ourselves in sunscreen and wore a little as possible. The snow was melting fast, but it didn’t matter since there was so much of it up there. There were a lot of places where the snow lower on the slope is pulling away from the snow higher up, forming fissures that in some cases were quite deep (over 10ft). Sometimes you could see them from above… other times, well, you had to hop quickly.

Overall, a fantastic day of Spring riding.

Alright, I’ve enjoyed this too much not to share it: http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/Pork

Helen and I started planning our trip for next winter. We’re thinking of snowboarding in Utah, probably around Park City since we’ve already done Snowbird and surrounding areas. Then we’ll head to CO for some more riding, then take the 50 all the way to Squaw Valley, stopping along the way for ample picture taking opportunities for Helen. After that, we’ll head for Mt. Bachelor, OR, and then home. Here’s a picture of a potential route. We’ll flesh out the details over the summer, and see if we end up with a trailer for this trip or not!

For info on our last big winter trip in 2006, see this post.

We watched Primer again recently. We saw it a while ago, probably shortly after it first came out in 2004, and I’ve remembered it off and on since then, so I decided to put it back on the Netflix queue. I had believed that watching it again I would understand it fully beginning to end, and I thought I was doing well until the last 5 min or so, when I lost it. Argh! It’s a complicated movie, presented somewhat out of order and they try to close up all the gaps with a series of flashbacks at the end. It comes out a smidge confusing, but it’s a good movie. I like a few things about it: their take on time travel, and the portrayal of the process of inventing the device. It’s that process of invention that I like about The World’s Fastest Indian, too.

At any rate, I highly recommend Primer. After you watch it you’ll probably be confused, but that’s okay. There is a fantastic graphic that illustrates the various timelines in the movie, who goes where when, and what the up-shot is. This entire graphic is one big spoiler, so don’t follow the link until you’ve watched the movie: http://neuwanstein.freeweb.hu/primer_timeline.html. I think the graphic is accurate in every aspect of the movie that is fact. I think it’s a bit off in one or two places where they had to speculate, because some parts of the movie are indefinite, but the ways in which it is off aren’t that big of a deal.

I went up to Alpental this morning with Dana, a friend from work. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the snow softened up into perfect spring corn. There is still an amazing amount of snow up there. The snow banks in the parking lots are still above the cars, and coverage on the mountain still feels like the height of the season. We rode from around 9:30 until almost 1 then called it a day. The place was packed with people… all of the lots filled up by the time we left, and the lift lines were long. But, the turnout was a good thing… looks like they will open up next weekend, too!!

Finally, it really must be said: the chick loading Chair 2 today was looking especially fine. Ah, Spring…

Helen and I drove up to Bellingham today to pick up the Chair 1 chair that I won in the auction. Ben, another guy from our race team that won a chair too, came along to get his as well. We picked them up from Mt. Baker’s business office, which is in Bellingham and not up at the ski area. They have all the chairs from the lift disassembled and stacked in a yard next to the office. They fit into a surprisingly compact space. We found the chair numbers we’d selected (well, close enough… we couldn’t find #42 so I ended up with #41) and loaded the parts into the truck. I plan to hang ours from the ceiling of my workshop, which is more than tall enough. I want to make sure the chair will swing when you sit on it, so I don’t want to just turn it into a bench that sits on the floor. We had considered putting it on the front porch of the house, which is covered, but there isn’t really the clearance to do that. I suppose I could cut a notch in the porch ceiling and work something out, but I think the shop will be easier.

Helen and I just returned from a long weekend in San Francisco, and we had a great time. We originally decided to go because Helen wanted to see Goldfrapp in concert and of the 3 tour dates in the US, Saturday’s was the closest. Well, it turned out some DJ’s I’ve been a fan of for a long time were playing the same venue the night before, so we went for an extra day and saw Sasha and John Digweed on Friday night. Both played at the Warfield, which is a pretty nice venue (like a smaller version of the Paramount in Seattle.)

We also spent a lot of time walking around the city and seeing the sights. We went all over: Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, the Castro, the Mission district, Japan Town, Chinatown, Alcatraz, etc. Helen got the good pictures, and when she puts some up then I’ll add a link. Here are some snapshots I took for now:

Mt. Baker is replacing Chair 1, which a very, very old fixed grip double, with a quad this summer, and they decided to sell the old chairs. They auctioned off 55 chairs via a silent auction, and I got one! I’ve always wanted a ski lift chair, and now I’ll have one in a few weeks. I’m not sure yet where I’ll put it, but I’m sure I’ll find a good spot. Maybe in the Monkey Shop, maybe on the porch, who knows.

Here’s a picture Helen took in February 2005 of the top station for Chair 1. I’ll miss the “death ramp”…