Playing in the fountain

Silas and I spent about three hours tonight after work tooling around by the river on the north side as well as some downtown. These shots are from a water feature that teems with families and dogs during the hot weather. I was actually headed to the Andy Warhol museum with him, but it was closed. Being outside was by far better this evening.

Canoeing and 'hard' water

The dark line up ahead is the transition from open water to ice

So, it's good to remember that just because the air temperature is around 70, doesn't mean the lakes aren't still partly frozen over. My canoeing plans for the weekend changed about ten times. In the end, Tim and I took the tandem out on the lake at North Park. However, we didn't even notice the ice until we were already on the water. The satelite images I was looking at in Google Earth weren't taken yesterday, of course, so I had forgotten to even consider that there'd be ice. Oh well.

It was still fun. We paddled around the open water for a while and then shot into the ice floe as far as we could before it was thick enough to resist breaking, and the bow pushed up onto the sheet. In any case, this time of year, any warm day on the water, no matter how short, is worth the effort.

Tim checking the water hardness

Looking back after we broke our way into the ice sheet some

Backing out of the path we'd plowed

Last of the canoe pics: Anuses of Pittsburgh

Some last photos from the river.

Spelunking by canoe

Kevin noticed a neat culvert or outlet into the river when we were out the other day. I couldn't pass up exploring it, despite the vague odor of sewage. It was a dry day and had been, so I was pretty sure we wouldn't be caught by any sudden deluges and flushed back out into the river.

It was a really neat experience. The acoustics were awesome. This was on the north side of the river, so the sun shone in for a little distance and reflected in further. There was a slight trickling sound of water far in. I got in far enough to see it, as shown below. Where the cross section changed from round to rectangular, it got too shallow to continue. The hips of my canoe were pretty close to touching both sides at that point, so it was pretty definitive. It was too narrow to turn the boats, so we had to backpedal to get out.

The photos are in chronological order, so go from the river inward.




Pretty much dark by this point. A little dim light. The pictures were only possible because of the flash. There was a weird sensation that just up ahead where it was dark, there was a huge pit and waterfall into somewhere much more subterranean. Of course, one would be able to hear such a thing, but that didn't stop the overactive imagination. It was kind of exciting.

Canoeing the Monongahela River pt. 3: More Walls

The river has such a crusty history. Some of the old hints at the riverbank's former 'usefulness' are really interesting. I have no idea how some of the things we saw fit into the bustle of industry that was once here, but I enjoy looking at them.

The photo above is one of the supports of the Hot Metal Bridge. The last photo of the strata that can be found along the river was particularly fun. The building is part of the Pittsburgh Technology Center.

Canoeing the Monongahela River pt. 2: Wall

About a mile and a half upriver, we came across a fascinating iron (steel?) retaining wall.

Water heater or sci-fi bomb

Well, it's not nearly as cool as the Maker Faire in Austin this week, but this electric water heater was sure a looker. That turbine-looking device is the flow sensor. It provides the computer some idea of the flow rate of the water so it knows how hard to pulse the heating elements hidden in those sexy stainless steel tubes. Of course, the timer is there so you know how long you have to get off the ship before the core goes critical and you need to be at least two parsecs from the resultant thermonuclear explosion.

Autumn scenery

Some more pictures from the camping trip. I can't decide if I like the horizontal or vertical version better for these first two. Any suggestions?


This was not posed. Bethany was really doing that when I happened to have the camera ready...

Silas and his first canoe trip

He was sure mad about having to wear a PFD. He did calm down quickly, though, as canoeing is a peaceful sort of activity. I'm so happy we could share the love of the outdoors and the beauty of canoeing with him.

This was a Raystown Lake. It was very scenic and nice. There were a lot of pleasure and fishing boats out, though. Luckily, they were respectful and gave us a good berth and usually slowed down to keep the wake down. Being a winding river reservior, once they got away from us much, they had rounded a bend. That made it pretty peaceful in between boats racing by.

More pics at Bethany's Life of Silas blog.



Guthrie would much rather be running around on shore than sitting sedentarily in the canoe.

No, not posed. Something was rustling around in the forest. We were hoping to catch sight of some wildlife. Me to enjoy it. Guthrie to bark furiously at it. We were both let down this time.


I'm not sure Bethany was terribly disappointed in getting shuttled around in the canoe on a day like this.

Golden, Colorado

Who knew they had a statue of Guthrie and me in downtown Golden. :) Actually, Bethany usually starts making comments about having forgotten what my face looks like long before I can grow the beard out that long. Ergo, rarely, if ever, does my beard look like that.

Here are two more shots from downtown Golden. I used to come down here for lunch sometimes when I worked at the solar company and at NREL. There is a kayak course on part of Clear Creek, out of sight in the picture. Evidently, it's still a decent trout stream in town. I watched two guys flyfishing. I used to fish this stream up in the mountains further.

Great morning to ride to work

I can't help but dawdle on nice mornings like today.