Carmichael's Position

Inspiration

Or envy… sometimes a bit too similar for comfort. 

A photo from Saturday afternoon…

What a Difference a Day Makes…

Yesterday I published this photo as an illustration of our recent Snow Storm here in Denver.   

Was recorded as 19 inches here in my neighborhood, and as much as 24 inches in some parts of town… my buddy Derek, up in the foothills had over 4 feet on his balcony!

Today all that changed… I arose this morning to a beautiful sunrise offering to warm the gray.

Later as the gray skies gave way to beautiful blue, I recreated yesterday’s picture.

Certainly a little more “cheery”.

And then I took my camera as I headed to the bank for another pleasant Fall… yes we’re still in FALL!… panoramic of Clement Park Lake.  Columbine High School is just over the hill at the left of the image.

And as I stood on the snowplowed path looking for more images to shoot, a small shadow crossed overhead.  I looked up to see this magnificent falcon floating on the warming currents of air.

Yep, all in all, a beautiful day in Colorado, makes me wish I had more than an hour at lunch time to be out in it.  But alas the weekend is here.  And I as said before, by Sunday most, if not all, of the 19 inches of snow will be a memory in JPEG.

More Photos from the Denver Storm of October 2009

You wanted more… well, at least Mom and Dad did… so…

Please forgive the limited subject matter, it was a work day after all, and unlike many of my fellow Denverites, I couldn’t play hooky thanks to the virtual office capability we have…

These are a few scenes after “act one” of this past two day storm, oddly enough as I write this (Thursday evening) the snow is beginning to intensify once again outside.  I guess 18 inches wasn’t enough.

As always, for larger images click on any of them and head over to my Colorado Landscapes gallery where these are newly inducted members.

This fist one I call “Nor Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor Snow”

And then after the plows, well paid for by our HoA dues, came through for the 3rd time since the beginning of the storm, I took this panoramic.  Boring I know, but I wanted to experiment with some creative effects and stitching. (This one you want to click on to get the larger size…)

And then on my way back in the house I noticed that a number of leaves on our Hawthorne bush were frozen in ice. Pretty cool!  … sorry pardon the pun.

And then finally a general scene on the road to my house… after the plows.

Looking forward to Sunday, when we’re forecast to be back in the 60’s and all this will be memories stored in JPEG. 

Hope you like… need to work on the skills a bit more.

Denver Snow Storm October 28, 2009

Many of you keep asking… so rather than keep saying, “Oh, its about 12 inches or so”… I figured I’d show y’all.

This is my back patio, t’was snow-free last night at midnight… here we are at 5:00pm… 7 more inches expected before noon tomorrow. 

On days like today, my Homeowners Association dues are worth every penny!

A little slight on the postings of late

Again, have to blame the day job.

Where I last left yon gentle readers, was planning for my trip to New York, AKA the ‘Center of the Universe’… according to New Yorkers.

NYC is a great place to visit, I always enjoy myself whenever I am back there, but it really is a different culture all to its own.  New Yorkers are amazed to find out there is more to the United States than the 7 Burroughs, and when I identify myself as a Coloradan, instantly I am privileged with their ski stories at Aspen.

Ah well… The trip last week was quite productive, yet as usual a whirlwind of activity of visiting customers and coordinating activities with the staff at NuEnergen.  So busy, all I really even took photos of were the whiteboards we scribbled up with grandiose plans for the next quarter, and a couple of headshots of our IT Director for our website.

I did however manage to head into Manhattan to join my Sister and Brother-in-Law for dinner in Little Italy.  Where I did manage to grab a couple of images for your viewing pleasure.  Both in the Little Italy area of Manhattan, one a panoramic of the street scene where we ate dinner, and the other experimenting with low light capabilities of the D80 while hand holding it, photographing a late night art exhibit taking place.

Other than these, I tried a couple of shots of the early fall foliage as I drove the Taconic Parkway from Poughkeepsie back down to our offices in White Plains… no luck there… lots of blur and un-interesting road shots.

I’ll try this weekend here in Colorado to see if I can sharpen my skills a bit more and share…

Weekend Thoughts… and Snow

Well this past week provided a bevy of fodder to prove the world is full of fools!  From Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid’s stance against allowing the pending “Health Care Overhaul” bill to be made available for a minimum of 72 hours before OUR elected representatives are to vote on it, allowing WE THE PEOPLE to read and digest the thing and to make our support or lack thereof known… to the selection of the “Anointed One” as recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, I really begin to question the ability of people… all people… to think critically.

I am discouraged by the lack of integrity in people’s actions and decisions.  The continuing culture of arrogance, is becoming quite distasteful.  For Nancy and Harry to block We The People from having reasonable access to the bills that are to influence our lives for the next decade is disgraceful and quite frankly, disrespectful.  As to the loyal opposition’s claim of, “The Republicans blocked a similar transparency petition, when the ‘Patriot Act’ was being voted on…” to me doesn’t even begin to compare.  The Patriot Act involves highly sensitive issues of National Security, and publically exposing all the components of that bill would seriously jeopardize our nations defense.  Can somebody please explain to me how a National Healthcare bill, meets that same criteria?  What in this bill is (or should be) classified, Secret or Top Secret?  NOTHING!!!

For me, if a bill contains no National Security issues, then it absolutely should be made public (and in my mind for a period of much longer than 72 hours) we have every right to see what our representatives are voting on, (including any added ‘Pork’ amendments, and we need to hold them accountable…) before the horse is out of the gate, not after!

Now as for the Nobel Peace Prize being handed to one so deserving as Barack Obama… uh… well… wait, I have some lint in my bellybutton…

Really my “Give-o-shit-o-meter” barely registered a flinch.  Why? you ask.  Well… look here (all winners of this… eh’em “illustrious” award):

1. Barack Obama (nominated 2 weeks after he assumed the Presidency)
2. Al Gore (leading cause of CO2 Release… that windbag.  Seriously people… FOLLOW THE MONEY!!!!!)
3. Jimmy Carter (Mom always said if I can’t say anything nice… nuff said)
4. United Nations (Oxymoronic Title if ever there was one…)
5. Yasser Arafat (Terrorists for Peace… = Atheists for God?)

Fundamentally the Nobel Committee will vote for the person or organization who’s desire it is to weaken the strength of “the Great Satin” the United States, and make efforts (or in Barack’s case… read teleprompted words) encouraging the demise of the United States ideals or stature in the world in support of failed socialistic and fascist philosophies.

So I say, hell, let them award it to whomever they like.  Awarding it to people like BHO and Yasser Arafat only serves to lessen the validity of the award, actually it is getting closer to a “Happy Meal Prize" every year.  Really I feel more sorry for previous winners the likes of Mother Theresa and the Dali Lama, REAL Champions for Peace.  Seriously folks do Al Gore, Barack Obama, and Yasser Arafat live to that same standard of character?

Weak Sauce!

And now from the Global Warming front… reporting from 27 degrees, snow, and postponed National League Division Playoff Baseball game hometown of Denver CO… I submit this week’s photos… from Fall to Winter in a PBS fundraiser break!.

Yesterday…

Today…

Oh yeah, we also bombed the moon in search of water-ice… Watch out North Dakota, you could be next! 

Well, that’s all for now, need to get back to my preparations for my trip to the “Center of the Universe” next week.  (That’s New York City for those of you who have never experienced “them”…)

Talk among yourselves…

Back From My First Tailhook Reunion and Symposium

As most of you know, a couple of years ago I took on the task of creating, writing, editing, and taking photos for the Tailhook Association’s blog, “The Tailhook Daily Briefing.”  In the two years I have been the editor, the blog has received over a quarter of a million hits and is regularly landed on hundreds of times daily as the number one return on various Google and Yahoo searches.  All very gratifying for me as I try to give something back the some of my greatest heroes, Naval Aviators.

Well, earlier this year I was informed I had been nominated for “Honorary Tailhooker of the Year” for my efforts.  I can never be nominated for “Tailhooker of the Year” as I am not an aviator, nor do I have any traps or cat shots to my name.  (Maybe someday…).  I was honored by the nomination, hell some of the past winners of the award are former Secretaries of the Navy for God’s sake!  Who wouldn’t welcome being included in such revered  company?

About a month ago, I was informed by “Tag” Ostertag (Naval Aviator Extraordinaire … and not just in his mind!) that I had indeed won the award, and that I was expected to be in Reno to receive my plaque at the Saturday awards lunch.  Again, I was floored!  And Honored! And humbled!

Wow…

So come this past September 10th, Ginger and I fly out to Reno, to attend my first (Ginger’s too for that matter) Tailhook Annual Reunion and Symposium.  I am glad I went.

We met up in Reno with my long time friend and fellow Tailhooker, Ken Schoeni, (actually Ken has been a Tailhooker longer than I have).  Ken was kind enough to help me take care of a few awkward logistic issues as I would be unable to arrive until late on Thursday night, and would need our registration materials early Friday Morning as we headed off from Reno to see the Blue Angels perform at the September 11th Remembrance NAS Fallon Airshow.

The Airshow was fantastic, Severe Clear and Beer! No better way to see an airshow! 

After the show, we boogied back in the bus to Reno to attend the Bug Roach Mixer.  A great cocktail party where Hawaiian Shirts and Flight Suits are the Uniform of the Day.  It is a great, cocktail fueled, party where one really has the opportunity to meet and greet the greatest pilots and NFO’s on the planet.

Seriously, I met up with dozens of old acquaintances and made an equal number of new friends at this year’s event.  I ran into a number of folks who are good friends of my Mom and Dad, as well as many familiar faces I had met at the Colorado Tailhooker parties Hans and Kathy Schmoldt have thrown at their ranch in Grand Junction.  Old Home week does not do it justice.

Every night is late night at Tailhook, after the scheduled events everyone regroups at the “Admin Rooms” to continue the camaraderie, the lie story telling competitions, accompanied by various bar games and the obligatory adult beverages!  I’m pretty sure one of the communities was serving up Cubi Cocktails AKA Radford Specials!  Wow, that’ll put hair on your feet!

We returned to our Hotel much much earlier than the young JO’s and somewhat older LCDRs in the crowd, leaving the olympic drinking events to those better able, and wanting… to deal with the after effects of such activities.  Even so it was well after midnight before we turned in. 

The next day after grabbing a few extra winks I headed back to the Nugget (we were staying in the Silver Legacy), but as I hailed a cab, at 10:00am mind you, who should get out but a LCDR and LT I had chatted briefly with at the Mixer the previous evening… they were just rolling in!  And were planning to return to forward battle area by noon!  IN—TREP—ID!

The warm up act before the lunch was the symposium session on “Pushing the Edge of the Envelope” which had current and former Blue Angels on one side pitted against Topgun Aviators on the other!  No better stories to be told than when on the opposing side is the “Oh Yeah?” gang.  I promise to post  few of those tails over at TDB in the future.

Next came the awards lunch, where all sorts of achievement awards were handed to the deserving flight crews, for bombing excellence, missile accuracy, most carrier landings (Traps), 1,000 trap milestones… etc.  And finally the Honorary Tailhooker of the Year.  There were two recipients this year, Mr. Woody Sales, a man who coordinated more Distinguished Visitors tours of carriers this year than anyone else, and insured that countless crewmembers of the USS Roosevelt received free passes to the Ryder Cup Golf Tournament last year!

And then me… 

Wow, what an honor.  I was presented the award by Vice Admiral Thomas Kilcline Jr., Commander, Naval Air Forces, COMNAVAIRPAC, RADM Jay Campbell, Capt Russ ‘Galdis’ Knight

Seriously, I am humbled by the honor.  I love being a Tailhooker, and contributing where I can.  I may not be able to fly for this great nation but maybe I can contribute something on behalf of those who do. 

After the Awards Lunch, the Admiral’s Briefing followed, this is really the event to attend!  It is comprised of a number of Admirals in the Air Navy chain of command, and is the opportunity for a Honest “No Holds Barred” Q&A session of the Navy Leadership.  Cuts to the quick. 

And then the final event of the Reunion is the Formal Banquet.  Where Ginger and I sat with Hans and Kathy, and had the fortune to sit with the CO and XO of VAQ-140 charming men both, and Capt. “Sterls” Gilliam, one of the officers of Tailhook, and one of the most complimentary gentlemen I could have had the fortune of sitting next to.  It made for a great evening of stories and general conversation.

We stayed up late into the morning that night as well, and after Saturday merged into Sunday, and we managed to capture a few hours of shut-eye… not nearly enough… we bid farewell to Reno, and the 2009 Tailhook Reunion, promising to return for 2010’s shindig!

Nice Scenery Here in Colorado too…

Ok, I know I have been posting a bunch of images relating to our awesome Alaskan Vacation, and I do owe one more post about the tremendous customer service found on Princess Cruises!  But that’s soon to be.

Today I want to share with yon gentle readers that Colorado has some great scenery too!  All available from the comfort of your CO2 spit’n automobile!

Mrs. Carmichael and I took a spin up into our local Rocky Mountains this afternoon, to the top of Mount Evans to be precise.  Mt. Evans boasts the highest paved road in North America, transporting the two of us to an altitude of  14,264 feet (ranking 14th among Colorado’s 53 “Fourteeners”).  And of course I had the camera.

This first one is of Summit Lake near Mt. Evans.  Made for a great reflection.

Now, understand that being on the “Highest Paved Road” does come with some inherent risks, like flirting with the oft attempted, seldom achieved, “Highest Fall From a Mountain Road, after 237 successful rolls of the car and ending up… upright!” record!  (Alive is optional!)  Fortunately I took a pass on that record… Although, on the way back down the mountain, mother nature decided it would be entertaining to toss a little (bullshit…) a Metric Ton of hail at us!  Y’know… just to make things um… uh…  “Sporty!”

We did get the opportunity to see some wildlife on the trip uphill, like the famous “Colorado Bi-Wheeled Calico Coronary Candidate”… actually these were out in droves!  You couldn’t fling blindfolded and backwards your Lance Armstrong “Live Strong” bracelet  without nailing one of these bastards!… don’t ask me how I know that…

Alas we reached the peak, and once there, the view was tremendous!

Of course the view of the vista behind her wasn’t too bad either… ;-)

There you go… Mt Evans, a 14,000 foot peak, the easy way! (As always, click any of the images for a larger more detailed view)

Denali, Means “Shy Mountain”

I’m convinced that “Denali” means “Shy Mountain!”  As is evidently very common, we never saw the entire mountain.  Clouds hovered around her like bees to the hive.

Our next stop on our Alaskan Voyage was the McKinley Princess Lodge.  A few dozen miles from the town of Takeetna, the lodge is completely independent (even through winter) making its own electricity, water and sewage disposal.  It is well places on a hill that provides stellar vistas of the Alaskan range and more specifically the 20,320 foot Mount McKinley or Denali (you pick).

However in our less than 24 hour stay at the McKinley Princess we were not to be so lucky.  The great mountain was continually shrouded in clouds.  Actually our weather was beginning to change from the usual partly cloudy we had been experiencing to a more steady overcast, with an occasional drizzle.  But, it did make for some interesting sunset images.

As well, the next morning we arose to find that Denali was still buried in clouds but low down we were able to see a few highlighted peaks of the Alaskan Range.

At the lodge we took the inclement weather in stride and used this time to relax near the lodge’s large fireplace, reading and playing bridge as a family.  And taking the opportunity to take some impromptu family shots. It was quite nice actually.

 

However… these family shots weren’t the only ones we took this cloudy afternoon.  Kelly had run into a familiar face as she was getting a snack, so she came back, retrieved dad, knowing he would want to meet this person.

 

Heheh…  alright… That’s it for the destination posts… I’ll be assembling one more that is more on the topic of “Onboard Ship” as I really didn’t cover that too much in these posts, and it is definitely worth dedicating an entire post.

As always… more and greater detailed images can be found here [link].

Denali part II… or… How to Eat Moose Poop!

At 1:30 on our day in Denali, we boarded a converted school bus, converted in that is was a off shade of gray instead of bilious yellow.  Other than that… all the creature comforts of a school bus.  Our tour of Denali was about the most basic tour one could take, more of a education walk than a full blown tour, a simple jaunt about 3 miles into the park then a 1 mile stroll, just to get a flavor. 

The good part of this mini tour is that it does expose us to the 3 areas of the park in pretty short order, the Taiga, the Tundra and the Alpine.  Onboard, we had a couple of Park Instructors from the Murie Science and Learning Center providing background and commentary on what we were seeing as we drove deeper into the park.  Both were extremely knowledgeable and much to my relief, not political.

We took the bus a few miles up the Denali Highway (McKinley Park Rd.) seeing mostly Taiga and Tundra on the way finally stopping at a campsite near the Savage River, this is where we got off to take a bit of a walking classroom tour.  Our instructor was lady named NJ Gates (That’s NJ above with my brother-in-law Peter).  And let me tell you, she knew her stuff, and provided not only an informative tour but a fun one. 

We began by walking down a gravel path through the camping area on our way to the Savage River.  Our first stop was at a Fir tree that had one of the largest burls on it I had ever seen.  I did notice while in Denali that Burl woodworking is a pretty common trade/craft.

At one point down the path NJ stopped us and pointed through a clearing at a cloud shrouded massif over a rise in the distance, “There is Denali, or Mt. McKinley whichever name you wish to use.”  We could only really make out the base of the mountain as, per the majority of the time, much of the peak is indeed hidden by its own weather, like a bride breathing her own veil.

After a few quick photo attempts at the mountain, we continued down the trail, toward an area where we we could sit a moment to learn more about the Flora and Fauna of the area.  But as we strolled, I looked down to my left and noticed a small pile of brown fibrous droppings, like a box of 5x Milk Duds had been spilled.  NJ walked over and identified this pile as Moose droppings.  She took this opportunity to educate our gathering about the Alaskan Moose, explaining how this was indeed their habitat and that Alaskan Moose tend to be the largest moose in North America reaching some 7 feet at the shoulder and weighing over 2,000 pounds.

She then proceeded to educate us on what a trained biologist can learn from animal’s scat.  She extracted her pocket knife, opened the blade and then promptly skewered one of the Moose Duds.  Picking it off the end of her knife she explained that this particular sampling was a few months old, yet cutting it in half she was able to see that due to the compaction the moose had been feeding on young willow and other moist plants at the time.  Tossing that piece aside, she bent back down to the pile and selected another, she stood and promptly informed us that one “can also tell a lot from the taste.”

THE WHAT?!!!!

That’s right… TASTE!  To wit she proceeded to bite her selected dud in half and chomp on the moose morsel!  Gunaaaguhhh!  Was the common utterance head from her students as we stared in disbelief as she, with mouth half full, began expressing what she could glean from the flavor and… ehem… texture of the turd.

Appears that “This particular moose was approximately 3 years old, female, and hmm… yep… not pregnant!” … “Anyone have some floss?”

Wait… What?  … Wait a minute… I think we’ve been had.  And indeed we had been had.  In a brilliant slight of hand, when NJ stabbed her first dropping with her knife she dropped another “Moose Turd look-alike confection” on the turf.  She returned to pick that imposter up from the area and sucker us all in!  Once it dawned on us, we all had a great, much to our relief, laugh!  She laughing the most!

So after this High School Talent show flash back, we walked over to an open air make shift classroom, where the park had a bin loaded with animal pelts,  caribou antlers, and ram’s horns.  She laid these on the ground before us and began to educate us on the various animals that populate the park and their behavioral tendencies.  How I wish all of my college professors where like this one.  We all sat attentively listening to NJ explain about the wildlife and learned quite a bit in our short visit.  We even had opportunity to learn about tracking collars used on the local Wolf Packs, using an actual collar that a former wearer had gnawed off, a tracking antenna, and a receiver broadcasting a telltale chirp, varying in tone and strength depending on the angle of the antenna and distance to the collar.  We even dialed in a frequency of a known female wolf and were able to ascertain that she was within 3 miles of us in a southeasterly direction from our current location, all without having to taste one of her droppings!  Ain’t modern technology awesome?  Very cool, in a Marlin Perkins-esque kind of way.

Before we knew it, our nature hike was over and we headed back to the bus, along the way spotting a Snowshoe Hare, not yet turned winter white, and a small covey of Ptarmigans (prn: Tar-meh-gan).  Let me tell you, we were only a few feet (5 or 6) from those birds and still had trouble spotting them in the vegetation thanks to their impeccable camouflage. There are 3 in the image immediately below…

Back aboard our bus, we headed back toward the visitors center, but all of the sudden a voice shouted “Stop! Moose! Three O’Clock!”  Our bus driver deftly pulled over to the side of the road, and we all plastered ourselves to the starboard side of the bus looking for the declared moose.

“Where???”  “How far?”… “Gimme a landmark!”  and after a few useful clues, sure enough, there was an Alaskan Denali Moose!  Grazing about 2,000 meters away!  (That’s right, someone in our moving bus, spotted a moose in the brush at over a MILE!!!)  I had my big lens on the camera (70-300mm DX) and pointed it at my target, insured that my vibration reduction was on and I had the fastest possible shutter speed I could afford on this gray cloudy day.  And still I could only manage semi blurry shots.  That’s a long throw!  Even with that big lens here is the best I could shoot off-hand at over a mile on a jiggling bus as people fought for a vantage.  Turns out there were two of them, both huge!

Digitally (not optically) zoomed below, thus the degradation of the image… but you get the idea.

After about 5 minutes of moose watching, it was time we moved on, we had to get back to the visitors center to catch a coach to our next destination for the evening, The Princess Mount McKinley Lodge.

Upon our arrival at the center we bid farewell to NJ, thanking her for her levity and her obvious knowledge she was most generous in sharing with us.  Then we all proceeded to the gift shop and snack bar, not so much because we had to have the latest paperweight trinket, but just to get out of the continuing cold breeze, while we waited for our coach to McKinley.

I’ll leave it here for now… as always more and greater detailed images can be found here [Link]

Next post… McKinley, AKA ‘Denali’ the Shy Mountain!