Santa Ho

Critical Path

During the last week of the Fall 2010 semester, the windows were finally being installed in the new Learning Resource Center under construction at Feather River College. If you have followed the sequence of previous LRC posts, you may realize that the building was originally to have been completed this month and occupied next semester. Sadly (and expensively) the plan was disrupted by some two-bit criminals.

What happened was that metal thieves stole the aluminum from the window manufacturer that was supposed to be used in the window frames. The manufacturer had to re-order it. Since no one can afford to hold any inventory any more, the custom-made aluminum had to be redone (and probably shipped here on a slow boat from you-know-where). Of course with no windows the building was open to the weather, so the interior finishing work could not begin. Also as it turns out, the flashing could not be installed without the windows; and the design specified that the flashing had to be installed before the roof could be finished. So now that the windows are finally here, things can proceed.

But wait, it is not that simple, because now the crappy-rainy-snowy-cold weather is here. Not the kind of weather you want for roof installation. The ideal weather occurred three months ago, exactly when the windows would have / should have been installed.

[Insert tongue in cheek now.]

So some guys with a hacksaw and a little time made a little money at the expense of education. Of course, it's not really their fault. This was the fault of the environmentalists! Those people who want to sustain the only planet we have, have built an infrastructure to encourage scrap of all kinds, especially metal, to be recycled for reuse. Furthermore they pay people do what people ought to do for free, make the small effort to recycle things that actually are scrap. So these entrepreneurs have made a business of creating scrap. Brilliant in that the only capital equipment needed was that hacksaw (which was probably acquired with a five-finger discount coupon from an unsuspecting supplier). So they are not criminals. They are just small businessmen creating jobs and helping to reduce unemployment. If they are ever caught, they should be praised for doing their part to beat the recession and kick the economy someplace, and they should be released rather than incarcerated. In the unlikely event that they are caught and convicted, we no doubt will punish them severely by providing them with comprehensive medical coverage, three daily meals, housing, and an immersion course that will teach them how to take their business to the next level upon their release. [Remove tongue from cheek.]

Quincy Sparkle

A few camera-phone snapshots of this year's Sparkle parade.

What the Dickens?

Ghosts of Halloween past.

Tagged

Storm Tracks

The morning after.

Toe to toe, so to speak,

under our sequoia with the neighborhood bear.

More to come?

Spring things

Planting bulbs before the ground freezes.

Hope for Spring.

Milling around

The biggest real business in Quincy is the Sierra Pacific mill. Among other things, they operate a co-generation facility to convert waste biomass to electricity.

On weekends those in the community can "contribute" their yard waste to the co-generator as well. To give those readers who actually live in urbanity a glimpse inside, these photos were taken over the last several months while driving through their log deck to or from the yard-waste drop-off point.

Ursa Major

Last night ursa left a major dump in the yard (actually three). So if you are asked whether a bear shits in the woods, the answer is: not always.

The local ursae (bears) have been coming into town for several months to fatten up on fruit (and un-secured garbage). Now about all that's available is the remainder of a good apple season. A week ago one ambled through our backyard late in the evening on the way to our neighbor's apple tree passing silently just six or eight feet from my wife. Both were surprised and hastily departed in opposite directions without incident.

Unseasoned

Roses today, Winter storm warnings for tomorrow.

Caption Needed

There is a great caption for this photo, but I don't know what it is.
If you think of it, leave a comment.

Scary

And finally the most scary of all:

Jack-O-Post 2010

2009
2008

Artists

At the risk of overdoing the tree, one more post. (If you want ongoing tree updates, go to the previous post where I will add to the slide show and the associated album every day or so.)

Photographers visit every day in early autumn to capture some photons; but Friday afternoon in addition, oil met canvas.

Artists Linda Blum in white and Norma Lewis wearing the hat.

Artist Sally Yost at work. (Click photos to enlarge.)

See more of her work on her website.

The Tree 2010

Here is the link to this year's day-by-day snapshots of the famous "Judge Thieler Tree" near the heart of beautiful downtown Quincy. By the way Leaf-peepers, it is a Sugar Maple, not a Norway maple! Also, many thanks to BlackOakNaturalist for my use of his photo above. His camera is much much much better than the puny cellphone I use to take the daily snapshot.

If you want to compare with last year, 2009 is here.

Autumn Begins

Time for another Awesome Autumn in Q-topia!

See the tree last Fall HERE.

Butt sizer

Sit where it fits.

But(t) don't get nailed.

Water Added

Remember to Click for Quincy.

September's progress on the new Learning Resource Center at FRC.

Previous post.

Click for Quincy

The Feather River College Writing Club took a wild card chance and applied for our community college to be one of the stops Ariana Huffington would do on her national book tour for her new book Third World America. Ariana stated that she would make an unscheduled (and free) stop in a region in the US that was economically depressed (this is Q-topia, not utopia). Out of over 200 submissions, Huffington Post picked the application for FRC to be in the final 15. Currently there is voting on the Huffington Post website underway, Please vote (for us)!

Margaret Garcia wrote the application, and after you have voted, you should click over to her blog, Tales of a Sierra Madre, to read her latest poems and essays. (Note to readers, her blog does not have a full RSS feed, so in a reader you only see the first few lines of poetry all smashed together, so you actually need to visit the site.) As a rule I object to partial feeds (read why here), but I think her work is worth the extra click.

I know that this post skirts the edge of the Ad-Free Blog logo on the left. Think of this as an ad for Q-topia rather than the book. I can't say that I am a huge fan of Ariana Huffington, but she is clearly in the vanguard of challenging the entrenched old media establishment in what I consider a fundamentally positive way. Even though I may or may not agree with everything she says, I do listen to her point of view.

Thanks for your votes! Wish us luck!

Unusual

Even on a holiday weekend Saturday afternoon it's unusual to have car-less person-less moment in front of the QNF Coop (but there are patrons inside).

Frequent visitors to the Urbanity blogs may notice the flag meme. Other readers may recognize the sunflowers that the BlackOakNaturalist occasionally features, as he did on the same day this photo was taken. To learn a little something about sunflower flowers, read this. Thanks Joe.

Solar Lunch

Vacant and alone

Not my personal state; just a couple random, albeit forlorn, shots. Perhaps reflective of the fact that summer suddenly seems to have ended - early and without denouement.