Gears? Those gears in my head never stop turning. Coffee? Black gold for the brain, oil for the gears. Take a peek into the life, mind, and last creative outlet of a budding entrepreneurial-minded engineer.
The last two posts were pre-written since I didn't have internet access. Now I sit typing as quitely as possible so as not to disturb the other 11 family members squeezed into a tiny pre-fab vacation home. It's after midnite in Florida and I'm up hours after curfew. So whisper, because I don't want to wake anyone.....
posted by Stu at 9:41 PM
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Sitting here in not-so-sunny Florida after a great three-days-two-nights of camping in Myakka State Park. This was a return trip for us. See, we've been coming down every winter break for about 12 years, visiting my "snowbird" grandparents. And, last year my dad, sister and I did a three-day backpacking trip at Myakka. This time, my mom joined us as well. We finally convinced my dad to plan appropriately--it seems that every time he over-plans the mileage. Here we had about 7 miles a day and stayed at two different but equally lovely primitive campsites.
Despite the mist, clouds, and intermittent drizzle, we managed to stay pretty dry throughout our time in the field. Some highlights: finding a lemon tree and a few orange trees in the middle of the wilderness, chasing down an armadillo, listening to mom and dad tell "wild" stories from their respective youths (mom didn't really have anything too wild, dad had too many to share them all), falling asleep to the sound of rain on the tent.
Now we're all back, all showered up, and getting back to the usual havoc that is our vacation.
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posted by Stu at 9:38 PM
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Where have I been? Geez, it seems like too long since the last update. Here are a few little snippets here just to catch up my readership and refresh my own memory.
I spent a pair of weekends in Robinson, IL, at Kristin's family's place. Wow, it was wonderful, exactly as I pictured it. Over the two weekends we got a day in Terre Haute for JW's holiday Barbershop concert, an evening at the bar with K's sis, a nice run with the puppies (two nice big golden retrievers), and pre-Christmas dinner with the family and some friends of theirs. Santa was nice to me, and K's folks gave me a really nice fishing rod.
I finished off my semester's work as well. Turned in a review paper on mechanics of heart valves, delivered a presentation/business plan/sales pitch about a surgical instrument startup, took a hard exam about molecular foundations of medicine and an easy exam on personal finance.
Celebrated the season twice. Once K and I had our Christmas at her apartment, with a delicious home-cooked meal and gifts under the tree and in our stockings. She "spoiled" her gift previously: when we were in the mall she asked if I'd ever been to Build-a-Bear Workshop, and I couldn't hold back my smile, having made her a bear with a cute little fleece and a corduroy purse and hat. The second celebration was for the Biomedical Engineering Department holiday party, where we had a tasty buffet-line dinner with my professors and fellow grad students, and got tipsy on wine and laughed at faculty singing karaoke.
posted by Stu at 9:36 PM
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Yes, I'm still alive. I'm doing quite well, in fact. Some of you (ahem, s00zi) have even asked where I've been. Well, long story short: Robinson, early Christmas, St. Louis, final exams, Robinson, presentation, packing. That brings me to now: nearly 1:00am and still packing for my 7:00am flight to sunny Florida.
On the agenda this vacation: camping in Myakka State Park, visiting with family--staying at the grandparents' place with just about everyone on my dad's side of the family, celebrating my uncle's birthday, tripping up to St. Petersburg to see Dave, perhaps spending some time with Sarasota Wash U friends. Hopefully also on the agenda: getting my ass in gear and catching all you "faithful readers" up with more detail of my recent happenings. But I'll be on dialup if anything, so I can't promise a lot. We'll see.
If I don't hear from you, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Love,
Stu
posted by Stu at 11:51 PM
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But only slightly. Just a short little post here to declare how sad a day it is, that my Gmail account received its first several pieces of spam. At least the filter caught it.
And now, boys and girls, back to (re-)learning about phospholipids in membranes.
posted by Stu at 8:27 AM
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A collection of my thoughts as I head into my own personal "hell week." (It's not that bad, just really busy.)
See, during my undergraduate years, I used to do my best work between 11pm and 3am. And I tended to thrive under moderate (not excessive) pressure, getting things done quickly and well when there truly a lot to do. I hope I keep this up, because I'm looking forward to the thrill of hard work again. Most of the rest of this semester has been moderate work interspersed with tasks and duties that kept me busy. Let me live again!
posted by Stu at 9:03 AM
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Since we ended early, we had Friday nite and all day Saturday where we didn't know what to do with ourselves. Never fear, we had plenty of leftovers that my mom had cooked up for Thanksgiving, then Sat we shot some skeet and my grandpa gave me a lesson in guns, use, maintenance, and such. Needless to say, it was great to have a day to unpack and relax a bit before hitting the skies for travel again.
Finally, I'll put up a link to a full photo album when I make one from the compiled pics from all three cameras.
posted by Stu at 9:58 AM
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posted by Stu at 9:38 AM
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Finally, my promised post about Thanksgiving backpacking trip. Excerpts here, click the "View this article" below to read the whole thing.
...continuedMy sister and I flew into Tucson via Dallas on Wednesday, arriving in the early afternoon. Dad and Grandpa picked us up and did the 90 minute drive south to Sierra Vista. Arriving at their house, we unpacked our luggage directly into our camping backpacks, preparing for the trip. After a longer-than-necessary stop at Fry's to pick up food for our 3-day, 2-night stay in the Miller Wilderness Area in the Huachuca mountains, we were just about set to go.
My grandpa took us to the shooting range late that afternoon so we could acclimate ourselves with the guns he wanted us to carry. You know, for protection against Arizona wildlife like rattlesnakes, bears, and illegal Mexican immigrants. Just ask anyone down there, they'll tell you. Honestly, we weren't too concerned about needing to use our arms, but figured we'd make him happy and take them. So my sister and my dad each got a .38 revolver, and I got a .357. A heavy gun on my hip, but it felt pretty good.
Thursday morning Mom and Grandpa drove us out to our start-point while the sun was coming up. My dad had planned 8-10 miles each day, starting at the bottom of Lutz Canyon (around 5200 feet), heading up to Miller Peak (9462 ft) then over to either Wisconsin Canyon or Pat Scott Canyon (depending on our progress and how we felt), then finally out via Ramsey Canyon. He figured this would take us Thursday, Friday, and most of Saturday.
...
Well, going up Lutz Canyon was killer. Between the elevation compared to St. Louis and Chicago, the 60+ pound packs, and the steep (sometimes as much as 45 degrees) inclines, we were pooped by midday. As always happens while hiking, we lost the trail for a while, but found it after we realized about 1/2 mile later that the caves we were seeing were unmarked. Took a break at Lutz Tunnel, where there were two big, old pieces of machinery (I'll put up a pic) and an old mine shaft that went in a few hundred feet. At another tunnel we saw rather large bear paw prints in the snow leading up to the entrance, so we approached with guns drawn but decided not to try our luck exploring inside.
Yes, you read right. There was snow. We were in Arizona, very far south (i.e. we could see into Mexico for much of our hike) and there were 3-4 inches of snow on the ground. The daytime wasn't too bad, probably about mid-40s temperature-wise, but the wind was quite chilly and when we de-packed our sweat gave us shivers.
So, anyway, we stopped for lunch at another abandoned mine. This one was very obviously heavily trafficked by immigrants, as evidenced by the loads of used toilet paper, discarded canvas backpacks, empty bottles of water with Spanish-language labels, and food wrappers galore. All these were up toward the front 200 feet or so of the mine. The three of us went in with our headlights and guns, determined to see what else was in the mine. At the back of the first tunnel, perhaps 600 feet straight in, there was nothing too interesting except the smell of a large animal (but its owner nowhere to be found) and a few sleeping bats. There was a side shaft that we took later, at the end of which was the old mining drill (this is no ordinary drill--think of a rusted steel cylinder the size of a streetlight pole!) and another branch. The last branch had nothing remarkable, but it was just very Indiana-Jones-ish to be nearly 2000 feet in the side of a mountain. Very cool.
The rest of the afternoon was a somewhat-less-steep climb on the Crest Trail, where we saw two other twosomes hiking on Turkey Day. The first was a young couple from the Army base nearby; the other was a pair of older women, apparently avid hikers, doing a daytrip up to Miller Peak and back. Both groups came in not via Lutz, like we did, but rather by Montezuma's Pass, which was maybe an additional 1/2 mile in length but had a lot lower grade. The women, in fact, commented that Lutz was certainly the hardest way in and that nobody in their right mind would do that uphill. We never claimed to be in our right mind....
At the junction of the Crest Trail and the Miller Peak Spur, we de-packed. This was around 2:30 in the afternoon, we were already exhausted, and we were less than half of where we had expected to be by day's-end. We headed up to the peak without our gear, and even this was tough. Miller is the highest peak in the range, and we had great views of Sierra Vista and of many of the other ranges around, some of which were well into Mexico. The wind at the peak was bitter-cold, cutting through our sweat-soaked shirts as we took a few pictures, ate some energy bars, and discussed our plan for the rest of the day.
...
We came down from the peak having decided we'd cut the trip short on distance, camping near the trail junction at the first suitable spot we found. There were several inches of snow here on the pine-covered ground, but we found a clear spot where someone had apparently camped recently, as seen by a ring of ashes from a campfire. The site was less-than-flat, which sort of bit us throughout the night, but it was here and we were pooped. So we set up the tent and started getting ready for dinner.
Dinner was rice and beans and a can of cranberry sauce (in honor of Thanksgiving), and my dad and I also had a small amount of Turkey-Spam (definitely not as good as Thanksgiving turkey, but it did the trick symbolically). We washed down dinner with a cup of hot water with lemon, as my sister was shivering and couldn't feel her toes. Later that nite she couldn't even wiggle them, and we got a bit worried she'd have frostbite, but we managed to keep her warm and safe. For additional water, we boiled some of the surrounding snow and treated it with our iodine tablets. Very survival-ish. Fun to talk about.
We went to bed shortly after dark, without even the energy or desire to make a campfire. The wind was bitter, the overnight lows must have been in the teens, and the slope we had set up on made our gear and our bodies slide toward the foot of the tent over the course of the nite. This was rugged. This was 4-season camping when we were really only prepared for 3-season.
Morning came and we decided we'd shorten the route, skipping Wisconsin or Pat Scott Canyons and opting instead to head out Carr Canyon. Worst-case we'd camp near the end of the trail, best-case we'd make it all the way out of the wilderness area and to the campground where we could conceivably call and get our pickup a day early.
...
We made darn-good time on Friday. After starting out a bit later than anticipated (getting out of a nice warm sleeping bag and into the cold morning air is always tough) we realized that most of the hike would be downhill. We made our way down thru different "layers" of foliage, starting high in the pine, then down to aspen, spruce, and oak. There was snow most of the way. It was lovely. Gorgeous. Each turn brought views more spectacular than the last.
Around mid-morning we made it to Tub Spring, which was literally a bathtub that one of the pioneers or miners had brought out to the middle of the woods and set pipe down into a spring. It was trickling water, and seemed surreal to have a full tub in the middle of nowhere. The hike turned slightly uphill after that, and we lost the trail for a short piece but quickly found where we were headed and took lunch in a gorgeous spot near the Carr Peak Spur.
We continued our downhill trek, seeing the footprints of another hiker or two and their dog (but didn't actually see the people) and getting closer to the wilderness area border. It was finally looking like the archetypical desert again, with prickly pear (despite patches of snow still remaining) and reddish-brown sandy soil. We were feeling pretty good by this point, you know that sore-tired-but-accomplished-with-end-in-sight good. Made it out the the campground around 3:00 only to find it completely empty. We called the "base camp team," who didn't expect us until the next day and so were two hours away shopping in Tucson. We hit a geocache that was in the campground (cached aren't allowed in wilderness areas) and then headed down the steep mountain road to meet our ride, whenever they'd arrive.
Even the dirt road was treacherous. There were a few pickup trucks, young families with little kids sledding and such, but too much ice for small cars to pass. Some of the switchbacks were amazingly steep, the kind of road you'd only want to try with a "Professional Driver, Closed Course." As we made it further down we saw more people and we finally crossed below the snow line. Mom and Grandpa arrived when we were about 4 miles down the road with another 2 miles left before hitting pavement. We were glad to have been relieved, glad to have conquered as much of the mountain as we did, and glad to have spent such a wonderful time out in nature.
posted by Stu at 8:30 AM
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Gears and Coffee