Month: January 2008

It is one of times where I am sitting here wondering how the heck I got ripped off LOL. Well, I did not get ripped in the sense that the product was bad, or problematic, but in the way that  it was  misrepresented  by the retailer (not the  product’s producer).

I wanted to get the GPS maps for the lakes and rivers in Calif. The guy at the Sportsmans Warehouse in Reno told me that the BlueChart America’s map package had all the lakes, rivers, and the ocean topo info along with all the bouys, hazards, etc. Well it does not! It does have most of the rivers in N Ca up and the bays and ocean but no lake info. Well doesn’t that just suck. Once you open the package your stuck, let alone after you unlock the maps area of your choice. AUGH!  I searched the net prior and found info leading me to believe the lakes were covered but I asked specifically to be sure. Does it cover the lakes? YES was the reply. Are you sure? Yes I am positive. Well bite me!

So, I guess I will have to take my GPS unit out with me when I got with other peeps with much larger boats ocean worthy LOL. Now anyone have the lakes??

I arrived home yesterday evening – yeah! I think my bone marrow may be thawed out in a few days.

The difference that one day of sunshine makes is enormous and amazing. The snow melts, the water soaks into the sand, tractors come out to make repairs, the work crews start burning the sagebrush, and the the world is much brighter and WARMER!

I received several gift cards for my favorite camera store here for Christmas so I ventured out to browse the goodies only to find that someone broke into their store and ripped off just about every dog gone item I was considering cashing the cards in on. What a bummer, somewhere there is thousands of dollars of stolen lens etc I hope the a holes get caught!

I visited my next favorite store and blew money I do not really have (read VISA) and satisfied my gimme want me mood with the purchase of the Nikkor 50mm f1.4D I have been drolling over. Next some of met at the nature center to shot some pics giving me the opportunity to try out the new lens. It is going to take a bit to get used to how fast it is compared to my other lens that I am used to and how the depth of field plays out.

The snow is melting yeah! Did you know that underneath all the beautiful white flakes lurks what I can only describe as frozen sand and boobt trapped mud holes? Ha ha I seem to have a nack for finding them.

This morning the main road ( mud ) became an amusment. As vehicles tried sometimes unsuccesfully to navigate out to the main road (paved). First casualtiy, one F350 4×4 as its wheels got stuck in someone elses mud groove slide slowely and helplessly into the ditch. It was fun watching to see who made it and who did not. By the time I went to brave the nasty back roadway to the bus stop I found out that the extra money for the mud/rock guards on my pre runner two wheel drive were not a bad thing. As I started sliding about the roadway and headed toward the brush and rocks I had a thought that wow like duh I can make my own pathway and bypass the large mud and water filled holes covered with a crust of melting ice running across the roadway. Coolness, this California chicken made their own roadway over rocks and brush.

Then the dare, why not drive the main road? Ugh ah no I say, then the words – I dare yah! Ok, not the sharpest tack on the block here I can not resist the temptation of trying to make it down the road, the one others have failed to make in 4×4’s – yeah I know – dumb – but a dare was tossed out – so . … not only did my little two wheel drive truck make it but I had the joy a passing by some peeps that are known – to put it politly- the kind of folks that you see on a television special about the neighboors from hell. Yep there they were with their big white 4×4 in the ditch along the roadway to the left sides sitting on a now very bent sign post. Then I see that another truck has parked itself ( same said folk’s relations) in the middle of the muddy goo road. Would they move? Nope, they just pointed and laughed at us. I have learned enough driving around the property here to no that if one stops one sinks. Stopping not an option I pick a path to the right of the truck and try to squeeze through while the tires are spinning and sliding. I ended up passing them all with the truck nose pointing toward them and my rear bumper inches from a white fence to the right – kind of sideways I made it by. Never stopping until hitting the hard pack of the edge of the highway. Woo hoo, was it fun to see the, as I call em ” stupids” standing there with the most baffled looks upon their faces.

Todays count  the stupids – zero – the little Toyota two wheel drive the winner! My first real attempt at driving through inches deep goo and I made it. Now my truck is very dirty, my ego way to large, and the “stupids” well they are still- what they are.

Hopefully I will make it one more time so I can make it to Dayton and then over the pass into California and home again jig ity jig.

The (me) chicken is staying put here in Nevada for a bit. I feel bad that I will miss my photo groups meetup but . … I so do not do icey roads.

Today I recieved a brief lesson in driving in inches of snow layed atop of muddy sand. Woo hoo I made circles in the yard sounds dumb but frozen icy snow covered mud is not something I have experience driving on. Later in the afternoon I actually made it to the school bus stop, got turned around in the snow and picked up the boys. It was an epic type adventure for this old lady. Imagine how the air was let out from under my wings when I watched the school bus charge in turn around and let the kids off as if it was just a ho hum deal. Wow, here I thought I was super for making it down there to be out done by a big yellow bus LOL.

Earlier I went out to warm up my truck and found my doors frozen shut. I pulled and jerked finally getting the passengers side front door unstuck. Crawling through to the drivers side only to hear my enging labor to start – I guess it is a valley girl too. Twenty mins later the temp gauge was near normal and the doors finally came unstuck. I then got out and got the wipers unstuck from the windshield and my lesson started.

Later this evening the boys and I used our feet to draw our names in the snow, creating ten foot tall letters. So if you are flying over Stagecoach and look out toward the country in the middle of no where till the next round of flakes slowely erases our efforts  you will see our names in desert snow .

And, yes, it is still cold.