Opposing traffic

2003-08-31 - 11:16 p.m.

My computer is, once again, on the fritz. I wish I knew how to fix it. I tried doing the same thing that Zed helped me do to it last time, but it only seemed to help a little bit. I'm very tempted to just go ahead and reinstall that operating system. If I knew it would fix the problem, I'd go ahead and do it right now. But I don't. I'd probably end up losing all my stuff and still have a barely functional computer.

The plan for today was that my parents and I were going to hike from Caples Lake to Emigrant Lake, about an eight mile hike round trip. We were going to get up at six and be on our way by seven. Of course last night, as usual, I had trouble sleeping. I finally fell asleep at about two but was awakened at four by flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder. I didn't fall back asleep until maybe quarter after five and then my alarm went off at six. As I got out of bed I could still hear thunder in the distance. I checked weather.com and it told me that today in Sac it was expected to be 99 degrees out with no chance of rain and up near where we were going to hike it was going to be 76 degrees with 30% chance of rain. We decided to take a chance and head up there anyway. The clouds looked ominous, but we stayed dry until we were only a few miles from the trailhead when it started to hail. When we got to the trailhead at Caples Lake, the whole ground basically looked like this:

and the sky was looking like this:

And it was really cold. We were wearing shorts and T-shirts and had packed swimsuits. Of course all of this storm nonsense could clear up in just a little bit, but it also might decide to stick around for the day, and we all know that hiking when you're cold and wet just isn't fun. Oh, and did I mention there was still plenty of lightning going on? So we decided to can the hike and go for a drive instead. You know my family and driving. From Caples Lake we kept driving up 88 over Monitor Pass, one of my favorite places on the planet. I've found it impossible to take an adequate picture of it, it's so much bigger than a camera can capture:

From there we took 395 south until we hit 108 and we took that over Sonora Pass. It's amazingly close to places I've been hundreds of times before, yet I don't think I've ever been there. The summit of Sonora Pass is at 9624 feet and parts of it are at a 26% grade. And I got to drive it in the rain, yeeeehaw!

The bad part about taking Sonora Pass in the direction that we took it is that it ends up, sadly enough, in Sonora. I'm not a fan of that area. We got there at 3:00 and it was 100 degrees out and completely dry. Looking at it makes me think of poison oak, rattlesnakes, and stickers in my socks. And from there to Sacramento is an awfully dull, dry ride through Oakdale, Escalon, Manteca, and Stockton.

I'd like to share a few more pictures of my day with you, because, well, this is my diary and I get to decide what goes in it. Sounds fair enough, right?

This morning we had breakfast at McDonald's in Placerville. My parents always insist on having McDonald's as our "adventure breakfast" before we go out hiking or something. I think McDonald's breakfasts are disgusting, but that's not my point here. While we were ordering, an Asian lady who had already received her food came up to the front to ask an employee behind the counter for something. At first I payed her absolutely no attention so I don't know what was said, but the employee behind the counter couldn't understand the Asian lady because she had a really thick accent. So the Asian lady helpfully spelled it out for the employee, "I want a F-O-C-K!" Which is the statement that got all of our attention--we weren't sure whether or not to be shocked. Still the employee didn't get it so the lady repeated it again, "I want a fock!" only this time she pantomimed shovelling food into her mouth. "Oh!" the employee exclaimed, the lightbulb finally flickering into brightness, "You want a fork!"

As I was waiting for my parents to be ready to go this morning, I stood out in my front yard and watched a pair of hummingbirds flit around the flowers in one of our trees. There were many bees doing the same thing (although much less energetically it seemed) and I started pondering how two different species came to fill the same niche through such different evolutionary paths. Here is a bird, fulfilling the function of a bee, and still being a bird. Sure it doesn't do the hive or the honey, but it flies from flower to flower drinking nectar and pollinating and it also does bird things like pairing off and building a nest and laying eggs and feeding its babies. And I thought of other birds bringing their babies little bugs and things to eat and that's when I wondered, how do hummingbirds feed their babies? They eat nectar. Can they carry the nectar to their babies? Do they throw it up like seagulls throwing up fish?

I had one more semi-nature related question come to mind today, too. I was driving around the mountains and we kept passing these signs that would say "Deer crossing next 7 miles" or whatever. It occurred to me that in my entire life I have never seen a single deer in a deer crossing zone. I've seen many deer--in the street and otherwise--but they are never ever in those crossing zones. Basically when you see those warning signs you can take it easy and not worry about a deer jumping out in front of you. Why is that? Have any of you ever seen a deer in a deer crossing zone?

And finally, is it possible to trace an e-mail back to its original sender? Do any of you know how to do that?