Bako Life: 1/11/09

Any given Sunday

Here they are, the boys, in Larry's "man box" -- the garage.

And here's Jack with his NEW DOG - Rowdy!

On the way to Ridgecrest...

I always have to snap the windfarms out of Tehachapi...they're just so cool looking.

I did the annual fog run on Saturday...I did the 10k and thought I'd be dying since I haven't run in a while. But I did OK...in that I wasn't hurting too much. My time was EMBARRASSINGLY slow (56.22) but I had my dogs with me and they were a drag on me (ha!).

The cool thing, literally, about the fog run this year was we actually had fog! Lots of it!

So much so that the race started late (foggy day delay) because it took people longer than usual to get out to Ming Lake. Here we are all standing around waiting.

The lady in the red jacket (center of photo) was a real piece of work. She kept yelling at the gal doing the pre registration packets about the delay because "some of us have THINGS to go to on a Saturday! THINGS like WEDDINGS and LUNCHES, you know!!!" I was getting my number when she pulled that crap and I couldn't stop myself from staring and laughing at her! What a goof!

Big moon

Saturday night (1/10/09) featured the brightest moon all year long, according to a wire story.

So how did we celebrate, why at Mexicali, of course!

I went outside to actually try and get a picture of the moon...but I think I failed pretty misearably...It was bright and beautiful, but looks like nothing more than a spotlight on a house here.

Yes, that is a "duck crossing" sign, by the way.

And here we are inside. I don't know why I can't seem to take a decent candid shot of anyone. I guess I'll just give up the idea of candid and get them to pose, otherwise, they all look a bit weird...which is sort of true, but not to THIS level!

Skiing!

While I was at the cabin getting the heater fixed, I thought I'd hit the slopes since Dodge actually had SNOW for once and it was nice...well it was nice the first couple days.

This is Bill and Rick. They have lockers in the "VIP" locker room. It was SMELLY!

Here I am about to go down Claim Jumper.

And here's the view from the top of claim jumper.

Then on Monday, the weather TURNED on us!

We still had fun skiing though. Here's video of Bill and Rick coming down Separator. Bill's comment when he saw the video was that it didn't look as STEEP as it is in real life....so just remember, it's VERY steep here! (Bill is first, then Rick)

And anyway, the bar was warm and dry. This is Jason, he pours a stiff drink so beWARE!

The locals.

The cabin heater

After all the trials and tribulations we've been through with the cabin heater, it turned out to NOT be a $600 valve, but the heat limit switch ($15) and a couple of other small things.

The heater is still not working to full capacity, we need to clean out or change the exhaust, because it's either clogged or pinched and is shutting down the heater when you get into the medium to high heat range.

But the heater works very well at low, or just slightly up from low. And the pilot is relighting every time when it kicks off, so that was fixed.

All you do is get it going on LOW, then slowly turn it up until you hear the burner fire up and leave it there. It'll stay on and keeps the cabin plenty warm at that level.

If it does kick off, you have to let it cool down a bit and push the reset button on the heat limit switch on the back of the heater. Here's a picture, it's kind of hard to see, but in between the two wires, there's a button.

I'm going to look for one of those long bendy brushes to clean out the exhaust on my next trip up, probably in mid-Feb

Never a dull moment at the cabin

So I left Fresno, and got to the cabin Jan. 1. It was FREEZING with no heater, which is why I went up there to see about getting it fixed, more about that in another post.

I cranked up the space heaters and lit a big fire and was sleeping on the couch in front of the fireplace when about 1:30 a.m. I hear stomp stomp stomp up the front stairs, which freaked me out a little. Then I heard a key in the door so I figured it must be someone I knew.

Justin, Lisa's oldest, and his friends showed up because, you know, why NOT drive 3 hours in the middle of the night to hang out in a freezing cabin for one night. They showed up with no food, no money and very little idea how to handle driving in the snow (see video).

Sigh! Luckily, aunty Lois was there to A) keep them from freezing B) FEED them and C) get the chain wrapped around their axel untangled.

KIDS!

It was beautiful and sunny the first few days.

Love that meadow!

The roads were clear except, of course, the ice sheet up to the cabin. Justin somehow made it up the night before WITHOUT chains and was able to get his car out and down to the main road the next day. But he couldn't find any parking so decided it would be a good idea to go BACK up the hill and find parking.

That's when they got stuck, right in the middle of the road in front of Lupo's! They got the chains on, as you can see. But watch the video to find out what happened to the right rear chain!