Thanks to my employer, I spent a short week in Grenoble, France, meeting people from synchrotrons all over the world and taking in as much technical information as possible. It was an intense week of knowledge, networking and a small bit of exploring that I very much appreciated. Thanks to the US Department of Energy’s…
Author: admin
Burning Man
We found out we’d be attending Burning Man back in May of this year. It took no less than nine friends helping me in an attempt to get tickets in a “click the button at the right time” process that resulted in only one person being successful. Thanks to that person, my mate Rob in…
My Climbing Boyfriend!
On Friday towards the end of my day shift a reminder popped up on my phone to message Kathi. I’d met her and her husband at Joshua Tree right at the very start of my solo Astro travels and we’d made fast friends and managed to meet up a few times over the next couple…
Big Sur(prise)
We went to Big Sur to do a lazy, flat twenty mile hike with hot springs at its middle, but we ended up hiking 25 miles, climbing the steepest mountain on the west coast of the US and going higher than the Grand Canyon is deep. Surprise! Since finishing work for the year, I’d spent…
Onyx to Whitewater
Conditions couldn’t have been worse for our drive down to Big Bear, a 7 hour venture at the best of times, but it was a holiday weekend and not just Columbus Day, but Thanksgiving. And it was raining. For the first time in six months. We had planned a hike in the Sierra’s about half…
Joshua
I’d worked my four 12-hour shifts at SLAC over the weekend, Friday through Monday, and I’d had fun! No major problems, I managed to not embarrass myself and the place didn’t burn down, I’d consider that a success! Now I had four days of holiday! Nice how SLAC gives and takes. It was 6pm on…
Birthday Canyon
12 o’clock, time to get out of work! Not that I was watching the clock or anything… just as I was about to head out the door I thought I’d check my flight status. Delayed by 2 hours! Ugh. Whatever, my head wasn’t at work anymore anyway, I rode out. After lunch on the train…
Bay Area Bonanza
It was a Tuesday. I’d come home early from SLAC and was in the workshop, just finishing up putting my fancy new car seats in the Dodge when I heard a familiar rumble coming up the driveway. Cleo’s head was poking half out the window as Dan rolled in. It hadn’t even been two weeks…
Clear Creek Canyon
I don’t know if I should be writing about this…. When you Google “Clear Creek Canyon” you find out about a place near Denver, CO. When you Google “Clear Creek” you learn a lot about water treatment plants. Even “Clear Creek Reservoir”, the official name of the place, you have to go about 5 links…