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Post by cnotthoff on Sept 12, 2020 8:44:49 GMT -8
On Thursday I had to drive up to Ruth Lake for a dive. Ruth is just north of the Hopkins Fire that has merged with the August Fire.
There was lots of smoke and ash, but no fire at the lake. It made me uneasy that I seemed like only guy headed towards the lake. It was great that I brought plenty of clean air to breath.
The high winds that accompanied the fires had dragged the anchor securing the marina's dock, so boats were bashing against each other. I was able to get enough lift on the concrete anchor, so the marina manager could pull the dock back in place with a pontoon boat. It was strange diving with ash falling like snow clouding the first few feet of water.
Good (and Safe) Dives, Charlie
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Post by nikeajax on Sept 12, 2020 9:21:17 GMT -8
Charlie, really--thanks for checking in with us! JB
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Post by SeaRat on Sept 12, 2020 10:44:42 GMT -8
Charlie,
I sure they were thankful that you helped get that Dock back where it needed to be.
John
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Post by SeaRat on Oct 16, 2020 16:49:54 GMT -8
Okay guys and gals, I have just successfully upgraded my iMac!!! My iMac is a 2012 model, and it was getting really slow, so slow that I could type here, and it sometimes took 15 seconds to register. WHAT??? Yes, it was really hard to concentrate on typing when you cannot even see what's happening. Because of this, I started looking at what the heck was going wrong. I first looked at storage, and found that my GoPro had really junked up my hard drive. So I started archieving that video, and got a bunch of drive space in the process. But it was still having problems. I have three hard drives hooked up to this computer, and one is for backup, two from old computers. I found that just starting up took up to half an hour. That's really discouraging to someone who really wants to do some work. WOW!!! Half an hour with nothing to do on the computer but wait for the display to stabilize. TERRIBLE!!! Well, I started looking at things, and was told to look at the startup disc. So I looked, and found that I had two startup discs!!! One was from my older computer. I immediately shut down that hard drive, and suddenly my startup was a lot quicker, like two minutes. So that solved that problem. But I still had some problems with the programs. I have a book I'm working on, and whenever it was up, everything else slowed down drastically. So I looked at my RAM. Well, my computer was equipped with four slots, but only two were filled, for RAM (Random Access Memory). So I looked at the Apple website, and found out that I could put four RAM chips, for a total of 32 GBites of memory. I needed "Small Dual Inline Memory Modules (SO-DIMM) that meet these criteria: --PC3-12800 --Unbuffered --Nonparity --204-pin --1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM So we looked at Amazon (my wife is a Amazon Prime member) and ordered it last Tuesday. It got here today, and I was able to install it myself, with one worry. When I tried to startup the computer, it beeked in three beep sequences. I looked this up on my iPad, and that meant that something wasn't right with the newly installed RAM. I took the computer down, and made sure that the RAM was properly seated. Then there are two levers that needed to be put down and clicked. Only one clicked, but i made sure the other was down where it needed to be, and closed the door again. After installing the cords, I started it up, and this time it went through a normal startup. And, WOW, it is so much faster now. I can type and it records everything as I type. I have my mail up, as well as Safari, and everything is donig well. So, with us at home, and our computer being one of our access points to the outside world, if any of you are having similar problems, I would highly recommend that you upgrades and clean out your computer. Now, what elso--Oh Ya, I have two duckbills to install in my Healthways original Scuba regulators. Thank you Terry! John Here's my photo of the Western Pearshell Mussel spawning: Mussels spawning8a by John Ratliff, on Flickr 'Got to get some diving into this post. I posted it for Mussel, our new member, below.
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Post by cnotthoff on Oct 23, 2020 8:03:46 GMT -8
I dove Ruth Lake again yesterday. Ruth is at the north end of the August fire.
It was sad to see that there is nothing left of so many homes. I was working with a crew who had been there when fire came over the ridge and leapt across the lake. The winds were so strong that firenados crossed about a half mile of water to ignite the other side.
I don't think the fires had anything to do with the bad visibility at 90 feet. I've made this inspection dive 4 times before and have been able to see what I was filming, not this time.
Sorry, the only thing vintage on this dive was me.
Good Dives, Charlie
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Post by nikeajax on Oct 23, 2020 10:11:34 GMT -8
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Post by SeaRat on Oct 23, 2020 10:12:17 GMT -8
I dove Ruth Lake again yesterday. Ruth is at the north end of the August fire. It was sad to see that there is nothing left of so many homes. I was working with a crew who had been there when fire came over the ridge and leapt across the lake. The winds were so strong that firenados crossed about a half mile of water to ignite the other side. I don't think the fires had anything to do with the bad visibility at 90 feet. I've made this inspection dive 4 times before and have been able to see what I was filming, not this time. Sorry, the only thing vintage on this dive was me. Good Dives, Charlie Wow, Charlie, that must have been an experience. It's really hard to imagine, even from this ol' smokejumper, that a fire would jump a half-mile of lake. WOW! NCSB Evening Jump by John Ratliff, on Flickr I am sitting here, typing on my "new" computer (new RAM, at least) kinda biting my lip because I know that the Clackamas River would be a great dive today, but, but, but I'm a "muture adult" who agreed with my wife not to dive alone (solo) in these situations (no lifeguards, no one around, etc.). So I'm sitting here drinking my coffee. I have an e-mail in to my dive buddy for next week; we'll see. It's October, the water is in the 40s F, and while my nearly 75 year-old body wants so much to get wet, I'm not going to risk it today. Instead, I may hit the trail with my recumbent bicycle. John
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Post by nikeajax on Dec 4, 2020 19:10:03 GMT -8
DAMNITALL... ya'd think fire season'd be over-- nope, keep dreamin'! Orange County, southern California, south of Los Angeles, has a new fire, we're getting residual smoke in the SF Bay Area... PM 2.5: blissair.com/what-is-pm-2-5.htm3% smaller than a human-hair Our AQI, air quality index, is 88 JB
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Post by SeaRat on Dec 6, 2020 13:41:11 GMT -8
DAMNITALL... ya'd think fire season'd be over-- nope, keep dreamin'! Orange County, southern California, south of Los Angeles, has a new fire, we're getting residual smoke in the SF Bay Area... PM 2.5: blissair.com/what-is-pm-2-5.htm3% smaller than a human-hair Our AQI, air quality index, is 88 JB You are correct to be concerned. PM 2.5 particles are so small that they "float" in air and don't settle out. They are kept up by "Brownian motion," which is the motion of air molecules hitting them. When breathed, a significant number do not get stuck in the air passageways, but go down all the way to the air sacs (alveoli) in the lungs. There, with only two cells separating them from the the blood stream, they readily cross and enter the blood. Once in the blood, they can do damage to numerous organs, including the heart. The article is pretty good in defining what to do. When I go out in these conditions on my bicycle, I wear my half face respirator with HEPA filters (High Efficieny Particle Air filters). I like my lungs and heart. Take care, and hopefully the air currents will shift and alleviate the smog soon. This, as you know, is a direct effect of climate change and global warming. John
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Post by nikeajax on Dec 6, 2020 14:42:50 GMT -8
John, yeah, it's some realllly nasty stuff! Allergy meds help a bit, but not enough: runny nose and ears too: it's even effecting my hearing. My wife and I keep misunderstanding every few words or not hearing what's coming over the TV. It's weird because I have way better than average hearing, which is not a fun thing to have.
As for global warming yes I agree: scientific data has already proved it exists, but the people who challenge it being real have no data to show otherwise--Just sayin'...
JB
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Post by SeaRat on Dec 9, 2020 15:52:07 GMT -8
Hopefully things have let up a bit, air pollution-wise, in the last few days. I went out bicycle riding this morning, and wore my half-face respirator for the ride. This was not so much for air pollution, but for easing the minds of pedestrians when I rode by on the trails.
John
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Post by nikeajax on Dec 9, 2020 16:25:16 GMT -8
The AQI-numbers keeps bouncing all over the place--GRRRR! This morning it was low 30's but now it's 58 this afternoon. There's supposed to be a good storm coming this weekend starting Friday through Sunday and we should be getting about .25" each day. It's my understanding that wearing a mask isn't so much about keeping from getting sick, but more so to retard the amount of pathogens coming from the unknown carriers. I keep seeing people who are only wearing face-shields and no respiratory covering, or they only have their mouth's covered. Alameda County is a hot-zone with: Confirmed cases: 34,373 Deceased: 525 Santa Clara County: Confirmed cases: 41,309 Deceased: 512 But if you want to see absolutely terrifying numbers... Los Angeles County
Confirmed cases: 459,738
Deceased: 8,000And yet there are countless thousands who believe it's all just made up to destroy small businesses JB
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Post by SeaRat on Dec 9, 2020 17:47:50 GMT -8
The AQI-numbers keeps bouncing all over the place--GRRRR! This morning it was low 30's but now it's 58 this afternoon. There's supposed to be a good storm coming this weekend starting Friday through Sunday and we should be getting about .25" each day. It's my understanding that wearing a mask isn't so much about keeping from getting sick, but more so to retard the amount of pathogens coming from the unknown carriers. I keep seeing people who are only wearing face-shields and no respiratory covering, or they only have their mouth's covered... ... And yet there are countless thousands who believe it's all just made up to destroy small businesses JB Well, I can comment on this too. The use of cloth face-covering "masks" are to preclude aerbourne, very tiny particles from being emitted when we breathe. The idea behind this is that if we keep them localized around the person's head, and keep 6 feet (72 inches, one fathom) away from someone else, our ability to infect someone else is minimized. But this doesn't completely protect us from others. It is only when all are wearing the masks that protection is complete. This is different from what I was wearing today. I had on a bicycle cap with a hood over it (it was cool today), a bicycle helmet, my eye glasses and a half-face respirator with HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filters in place. This is a N-99 respirator (filters out over 99% of the particles around a person greater than 0.3 microns in diameter). So I was very well protected from others with this setup. But these have a non-return valve below the chin, which allows my breath out without too much filtering (although the change in direction from out to down captures a lot of water particles before the exhaled air goes out, and the exhaled air goes straight down, not out. Because of this, in crowded areas, my N-99 respirator does not protect others, and with the non-return valve would not be one of the recommended respirators. fullsizeoutput_285d by John Ratliff, on Flickr The reason for all this is that with COVID-19, we are asympomatic for several days after being infected, and during this time we can easily infect others. So the cloth coverings are better than my respirator for protecting others from me. But on the trail, in the outdoors, that really doesn't matter, and I prefer the half-face respirator over the cloth mask. For one, it doesn't fog my glasses. As divers, if we use our scuba while close together, we have an independent air supply and therefore cannot become infected. But if we take our regulator out of our mouth to talk, then we are vulnerable to the infection. Those who think this pandemic is made-up, some nurses recommend that they volunteer at the ICU of a hospital, and not wear any PPE. That way, they can help the hospital staff out and at the same time verify amongst those who don't believe in it that it is real when they have to be intubated and isolated in the ICU themselves. Some nurses have said something to the effect of "If you think wearing a mask in inconvenient, try being intubated." John
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Post by SeaRat on Dec 11, 2020 12:41:08 GMT -8
t Since it's been a very disheartening year, I thought you'd enjoy what the One Voice Children's Choir has been able to do, even with the Pandemic and social distancing. John
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Post by nikeajax on Jan 7, 2021 16:01:33 GMT -8
Well... here's something pleasant in response to the absolute mindless stupidity of 1/6/2021:
JB
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