Desert Retrospective - So Underrated - Roger Clyne 13Dec18

I've been listening to Roger Clyne since before The Refreshments in 1996, now through The Peacemakers and so on. This bandleader, songwriter, lead has some southwest swagger from Tempe but I don't quite get why he wasn't bigger... clever lyrics, stompin' vibe and a dirty clean. Here's his biggest hit Bandito played acoustic.

Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers - Bandito

Jean Luc Picard... and the United Federation of Planets... where they speak English everywhere.
The world is full of stupid people so meet me at the mission at midnight and we'll divvy up there.
Everybody knows, the world is full of stupid people, well I got the pistol, so I'll keep the pesos, and that seems fair.

But everything he's done (with 2 bands) is very worthy... here are the studio albums 1st to current... all really good though I've not dived on the most recent deeply.

Tying Stalcup's CDC Loopwing Emerger BWO 12Dec18

I love this fly on finicky tailwaters like the So Platte in Cheeseman. It is an all natural so not very rugged but man it works during BWO seasons. I've fished it both sunk and as a righteous emerger in the film with the wing "dry" and the body wet. Be warned, this is not an easy fly to tie despite its relative simplicity, the materials are generally small and it gets crowded at hook eye.

CDC Loopwing Emerger BWO

Recipe/Ingredients:

• Hook: #20-#28 TMC 2487
• Thread: Olive #70 UTC UltraThread
• Head: None
• Tail: ~6 white & brown partridge hen hackle fibers
• Body: Olive died goose biot
• Thorax: BWO Superfine dubbing
• Legs: ~6 white & brown partridge hen hackle fibers

Here we go...

Hook in vise; bind on thread at 1/2 way

Select small brown & white partridge feather

Tie in 4-6 fibers to bend leaving tail = hook length

Select goose biot and tie in at tail start;
assure notch at free end is facing up

Wrap on biot overlapping fuzzy front edge of biot;
get smooth, even, segmented look;
bind in at thorax

Select gray CDC puff
(These are easier to work than full feathers
and still pretty cheap)

Bind in CDC puff at tips end with concave up
(pull through wrap down to length but no
need to go all the way to tips - trim off tips);
Dub tube of BWO superfine and make thorax

Add 4-6 more partridge hackle fibers -
hold bunch on side on loose wrap then  move
beneath like legs and pull to length at hook point;
whip finish and tidy up (not too tidy here)

Frigid With Kize & More 03Dec18

Dr. Scott Kaiser (henceforth, Kize the speed freak) and I partook of a frigid day (<20° all day, in and out of sun) @ Breck. My friend BobR grabbed sinus crap and had to bail. We had a blast scoring 16Kft in under 2 hrs... it turns out Kize is a corduroy speed daemon and the lack of other fools on the mountain allowed very quick turns across pk8 and pk9 (6 and 10 are still closed). It was great skiing my 1st time with my friend and the short day too allowed me to get back to the Front Range for dentistry this week. No goggle gap on these supremely aware studs.

Once back I retrieved our packages from the past week and included is a micro-jump starter. Given the load I am now drawing from the Crusher battery to maintain my on-board fridge at 35° I had two choices - 1) build a 2 battery  system in the Crusher or 2) carry an on-board emergency jump starter. I chose the latter for now - we'll see how my fridge and how (hopefully not) the jump starter performs.

To test the fridge I needed to load it, right? After a bit of 110v charging, the fridge was a chilly 35° as hoped... so were my fresh 6 of Your IPAs from Melvin. Sometimes you need to turn from the haze and enjoy a nice West Coast IPA. Not the best from Melvin but better than most stuff out there; 'cause its Melvin.

The Beavers & More 02Dec18

Daryle DeBalski, Dave Sheldon and I all got our first trip down the Beavers section of A Basin... we took Loafer just to start, and it sucked. We should've gone up again for different lines as the terrain looks great, but it was so bad we moved back over to the face of ABay for some really fun runs in chilly but sunny conditions. What a view up there though.

More Early Season Runs In The Pow' 01Dec18

I've never gotten 4 powder days in November - what a great start to the ski season, even if I had to ski some weekends. ;) Today I was treated to catch a number of runs with DD. Yeah - please no comments on this - I didn't know he got a gold jacket and he didn't know I got a gold mid-layer. Yet, a fine outing on decent fresh snowfall despite some 2/3 speed runs to assure rock and stump avoidance.

Home Automation Update 28Nov18

I perused the smart doorbell offers and couldn't pull the trigger on the Google/Nest offer despite the great reviews - just too expensive. Since we have a Logitech/Arlo security/camera setup, I went with Arlo Doorbell and Arlo Chime. They are now installed at the Nest and work great ~ although latency is an issue with all these systems. I didn't have existing doorbell wiring so the pure wireless was a boon. Both items are fully integrated now... I know motion at the front door and record video on the event and I know a doorbell press, which rings the indoor chime, and can answer in person, or rings a call on my phone and I have a conversation with the visitor, or just allow the visitor to leave a message - without any intervention. Pretty cool. We'll see about battery life.

I now have the biggest config for Arlo which is still free. Five security cameras, including one added to cover the front door and one looking out back at the weather and wildlife, and a doorbell & chime (shown above). I've set up all appropriate rules and modes and it all works pretty well. I still get some false positive alerts though when I open the iPhone app and view a camera live - something is cross-wired in Arlo's cloud service. Too, the latency to the doorbell speaker, when answering on the iPhone as a phone call, is too long. Both of these issues are not show stoppers and the monthly fee of $0 is just right.

Regrettes @ Marquis Theater 27Nov18

Bob Riefstahl, Yoho and I enjoyed a good concert at the Marquis. We dined first on gr8 pizzas at Marco's Coal Fired and then walked over to the Marquis. We saw all three bands Ricky James, Welles and the Regrettes - though I was definitely there to see the (now headliner) Regrettes. Ricky James was energetic like Mick Jagger (he even did Helter Skelter after I noted the similarity) and somewhat like the Black Crowes a bit - I liked them... really bad image below. Welles was decent but a southern hard rocker sound I did not prefer - Jim liked them OK. Regrettes were good and fun SoCal girl punk as hoped. Production was better for them than at Summit early this year but I'd have to say that the sound at the Marquis is over-driven for such a small venue. It was a good, but not great, concert. I've included a movie of an unreleased song (PW: GR8F1sh)!

Regrettes @ Marquis - Unreleased New Song