LarryC’s World

As we were driving through Western Nevada on Hiway 93, the air seemed very hazy. In fact in Hawthorne, it was so bad I could barely make out the mountains just a couple of miles west of town. When we got to Fallon, I mentioned it to the locals and they told me it was smoke from the California fires.

Today, as we drove over the Sierras on I80, it was pretty clear in Reno, and Truckee. But when we got down to Placerville, the smoke was thick. And it stayed smokey all the way into San Jose. While driving to Nevada, we did notice a rather large fire in the mountains southeast of Tucson. Then one of the neighbors in Fallon told us there was a fire near Phoenix. Coupled with the fire we had near Las Cruces a week ago, it seems that the west is on fire!

Oh, a quick gas price update… gas was $3.72 in Lordsburg NM; $4.15 in Vegas; $4.49 in Tonopah, NV; $4.03 in Fernley NV (between Fallon and Reno), and when I got to San Jose it was $4.53!

We are in Fallon Nevada today. The trip from Las Cruces was pretty easy. Stopped over in Vegas Tuesday night before moving on to Fallon on Wednesday. We head on to San Jose tomorrow .

I think I found the photographer of that photo. Here is a link to a site with more photos: More Organ Mountains Fire Photos.

Well, I wasn’t going to post this photo until I found out who took it. But, so far I have been unable to track down the photographer, and it has been sent to me by multiple people. So here it is:

I do not know who took this picture, but from the exif data on the photo I know it was taken around 1:00 AM on June 15 with a Nikon D3. It appears to have been taken from the east side of A Mountain and is looking East at the Organs. The lefty edge of the fire is the Dripping Springs Natural Area, and the right edge is Soledad Canyon. Our house is somewhere near the bottom right edge of the photo. This was obviously a time exposure because of the star trails in the sky. Also, the full moon was on the 18th, so the moon was pretty bright Sunday morning. You’ve got to admit it is a dramatic picture.

As I write this, the Weatherunderground gizmo says the ‘official’ temperature in Las Cruces is 102! The thermometer at my house reads 100! Needless to say, it is hot. It is also dry. The humidity  has been in single digits, and never above 20%.  Of course my swamp coolers are very efficient at that low level, they’ve been keeping the inside in the 70’s. Even though we live in the desert with little vegetation, these high temperatures and low humidity have made the little vegetation we have very dry and the fire danger is high. Saturday (6/14) afternoon, a grass fire started in the Dripping Springs Natural Area. It quickly spread over the ridge into Soledad Canyon, and appeared to be heading down the canyon towards our area.

Saturday night we were treated to the sight of a line of fire, heading down the mountain. And, Sunday morning the flames appeared to be very close to the houses nearest the mountains. By Sunday afternoon though, a wind out of the Northwest blew the fire back on itself, and with the help of backfires set by the fire fighters, the advance towards our neighborhood was stopped. The fire did blow up over the mountains and into Ft Bliss. When it headed east, it sent up an impressive smoke column. I have posted a few photos in my gallery, in the “Views Around the Neighborhood” album. Here is a link.

Fortunately, no houses were damaged, and only a few homes closest to the mountains were evacuated. I was never worried, but I was concerned. If the fire had gotten into the housing area, it could have spread faster and might have threatened the whole neighborhood. But, that never happened. A friend of mine sent me a great photo of the fire taken Saturday night. I will post it as soon as I get permission.

In my post about DirecTV, I alluded to the fact that I had purchased a new TV.Well, here it is: Philips 42″ flat screen.

It isn’t a high-end set, but it is pretty nice. It is possible to spend close to $3,000 for a 42″ flat screen TV, but frankly for a guy who wears bi-focals, and isn’t getting any younger, I could not see a significant difference between those high-end ones, and my lower-middle priced model. It is a full 1080p model, but a recent study I read said that the average person cannot tell the difference between 1080 and 720p models. I liked the clean look of the set. The speakers are hidden on the back (and have pretty decent sound). In the store, the picture was comparable to the more expensive brands.

The other feature that appealed to me was that it had a full compliment of inputs. In addition to 4 HDMI ports, it also had 2 component video, and 2 s-video ports, and has an s-video, and HDMI port on the side for attaching portable devices. It also has a USB port. If you aren’t familiar with all of the terminology, you need either HDMI or component video to get HD programming to the TV.HDMI is preferable, because it is a single digital cable that carries both video and sound. Component video requires 5 coaxial cables (3 for video, 2 for sound). USB is a data port that is common on computers.

While I’m talking about cables, if you check the price of cables at the local Best-Buy, a six foot HDMi cable will set you back 50-70 dollars!. Order your cables online! You can buy the same Belden(brand name) HDMI cable that the stores sell for $50, for less than half that price at Blue Jeans Cables. If you don’t mind using made-in-China generic cables, they cost even less at Monoprice.com. I have linked to both of those web sites.

Oh yes, you may have noticed that I mounted it on the wall. I used 2 8 foot HDMI cables, 1 for the Dish receiver, and 1 for the DVD player.

Finished up the Links page. It’s listed on the top, and has lots of links. Check it out and feel free to send me suggestions.

I guess I am obsessing about gas prices cuz we’re planning a trip to California in a few weeks, and it looks like we are going from a place of relative low prices, to some of the highest in the country. If you look at THIS MAP, you will notice that El Paso, has the lowest prices in Texas, and Las Cruces prices are moderate (less than $4.00 per gal.). This map is courtesy of Gasbuddy. Gas Buddy does a pretty good job of listing local prices, but they don’t show every filling station in town.

While our prices may be hovering near $4.00 per gallon, across the border in Mexico, gas is $2.19/gal. Some of the local service stations and repair shops are warning about buying “Foreign” gas. That’s like the warnings about buying Canadian prescription drugs. Near the border here, most of the gas they sell in Juarez and Palomas is from Western refining in El Paso!! Besides, the cars they drive in Mexico are all made in the USA (well at least as much as any car is made here now), and have those foreign names like Ford! They have the same gasoline requirements that our cars have, 87 or 86 octane, I’m not planning on driving over just to fill up my tank, though. Driving into Juarez is easy, but the return can involve lengthy waits at the crossing. What is the sense in filling up your tank with cheap gas, if you use half of it while in idle at the border crossing?

Well here’s a quick link to Gas Buddy in a gizmo. I wanted to put it on the front page, but it is not resizable like the zFacts gizmo is, so I will just add it here. I’ll also put it on my ‘Links” page, when I get the page finished.

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