Fourth quarter 2010
Do not buy a Samsung color laser printer. I bought a CLP-620ND. Out of the box, it has the equivalent of chromatic aberration in a camera lens. Anything printed (even their test print) will have cyan fringing on one side of the object and magenta fringing on the opposite side. A call to Samsung tech support yielded nothing over the phone. They sent a tech from a local authorized repair depot and he couldn’t do anything. We looked in the service manual (partial) and found nothing. Another call to Samsung revealed another guy who had no idea what I was talking about, but proceeded to give out troubleshooting ideas. I asked for his supervisor and next tier of support, however they do not allow customers to talk to them directly. I asked if they test each one before sending them out - no direct answer. I really do not want to be their quality control department. I needed to call another number to see what Samsung wants to do. That person understood my problem, but it is a repair only, as no exchanges are possible until after a repair. I will have to reevaluate my future purchases of Samsung products. Unbelievable! I played with it some more and it may be a combination of settings that will allow this color misalignment - what a feature! I just thought it is mandatory to have everything print spot on. Looking at a few more prints, it looks like the red is slightly compressed vertically. If it matched at the top, it’s a little too high near the bottom of the page - aarghh!

Caught the total lunar eclipse on December 20. Bought a Canon 7d to replace my aging Canon 20d. Took a few eclipse pictures.

UC Davis Preview - Took a long stroll in the Arboretum after the campus guided tour.

UC Santa Cruz - The info session was presented extremely well. The student lead guided tour had humor, personal thoughts, and lots of useful stuff.

Three quarters through 2010
There were 3 short trips this summer. It started out with a tour to UC Merced with a final destination of central Nevada. We continued up Snelling Road, LaGrange Rd, J59, Red Hills to Chinese Camp, Hwy 49 to Jamestown, Columbia, Angels Camp, and Murphys. We continued on Hwy 4 east through the Stanislaus National Forest and found Pacific Valley Campground at 7600 feet. After breakfast, we journeyed past Fallon to Grimes Point Achaeological Area for some rockin’ petroglyphs. Further east past Middlegate is the Shoe Tree. After an overnight stay in Carson City, we strolled the streets of Virginia City, then spent time with the educational exhibits at the Fleischmann Planetarium & Science Center in the University of Reno campus and the Wilbur D. May Arboretum. Back to stay at the Circus Circus in Reno, we enjoyed the seafood buffet at the El Dorado. Next morning, we visited an abstract sculpture dedicated to Basque Sheepherders. Traveling on the west shore of Lake Tahoe, we hiked toward Emerald Bay and visited Vikingsholm. Off on scenic winding Hwy 50 back home.

The National Monument to the Basque Sheepherder

The second trip was to our annual pot luck at California Carnivores in Sebastopol. We did not manage to escape without buying another plant.

A neighbor (college roomate) and I took the big telescope down to Paso Robles for dark enough skies to look at deep sky objects. This is the first long trip for viewing. I then went to hike around part of Morro Rock and then onward to San Luis Obispo where I climbed Bishop Peak. Next day, I drove around the Cal Poly campus. Even with the last visit years ago, there’s additional student housing and several new academic buildings. We celebrated his birthday with his mom at her home in Paso. Up Hwy 101, I stopped by Mission San Miguel to stretch my legs.

McCartney
We took the CalTrain to AT&T Park on July 10 with two friends. Fidgeting in the nosebleed seats of left field, the Paul McCartney Up and Coming concert started after a long hour’s delay, and did not end until three hours later. Live and Let Die along with its pyrotechnics outdid the laser show from his Berkeley April 1990 concert at the Cal Bears stadium. And we were at the extreme opposite end of the oval enjoying it.

Vacations in 2009Closed for Remodeling in Seligman, Arizona

Desert Again
In early October, Nancy and I drove out to the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas for a seminar. We saw LOVE, The Cirque du Soleil show set to The Beatles music. Having been to Vegas only once in our lifetimes, we visited twice this year.

Not So Clear Lake
During the Labor Day weekend, we went camping with Nancy's brother and his two kids. It was their first, but not ours. Temperatures were very mild. We toasted marshmallows to make smores after meals of hamburger, soup, and noodles. A pontoon boat was rented just for the fun of it. We caught more seaweed and algae than fish. We did not trust our next meal would have come from the lake. All in all, a great two days to just spend outdoors at the best campsite there.

BACPS Meeting
On July 18, we went to the Bay Area Carnivorous Plant Society Potluck at California Carnivores in Sebastopol. It’s always fun attending and learning about plants, but horrible having to always buy something there.

Heat Wave
During a mini heat wave during the last weekend of June, we drove north up 101 and escaped to Eureka. We crossed the bridge to Samoa, ate at The Samoa Cookhouse and crashed at the hotel. The next morning we hiked around the sand dunes of Manila, went through Humboldt State University in Arcata, and finally did some beachcombing in Trinidad. Nice stroll on the beach looking at the sea lions and gulls. Then a snap decision to take winding Highway 299 through Redding and hit the Manzanita Lake Campground at Lassen Volcanic National Park. Next day, we hiked the Kings Creek Trail to the waterfall. Overnight at the Southwest Campground, we started a big campfire. Next morning, we did the mandatory hike to Bumpass Hell. Wonderful for the aural and olfactory sensors, not to mention the visual delights. Sulfurous smells, mud pots, fumeroles, and pools surround the hiking path. For the trip home, we decided not to go toward Paradise but on I5 via Red Bluff. As usual, we stopped at Lion Food and Harbor Freight in Newark to pick up a few things before reaching home.

Spring Break 2009
Seeing that the 6th and 7th graders had scheduled a Grand Canyon trip during Spring Break, we thought it would be a great idea to go outside of the school group and before the summer heat. Also the cost and itinerary did not appeal to me. Due to low enrollment it was cancelled. Two weeks prior we made reservations near the London Bridge overnight and paid for our 3 nights at Mather Campground at the South Rim. First day we walked the Rim Trail from the old Visitor Center to Yavapai Point. That first night, I set up my little 80mm refractor on a photo tripod and saw M51 Whirlpool Galaxy, Saturn, M42 Orion Nebula, and some star clusters. In the second perfect day, we hiked the Bright Angel Trail 1.5 miles to the first resthouse and had lunch. The third day on the South Kaibab Trail was challenging in that it was overcast with gusting winds and we had to endure the cold - quite different from the short sleeve weather of the previous day. Since we started early, we took the bus and stopped off at several overlooks west of the lodges to view the Colorado River and finally landed at Hermit’s Rest to sip on hot chocolate.

This last night at the campground was extremely gustly with some snow flurries. We had the bulk of the snowfall while tearing down camp. Seeing things would not be improving for at least a couple more days, we ditched our trips to Desert View, Wupatki National Monument, and Flagstaff and headed straight to Las Vegas. We had a dinner buffet at the Bellagio (no kid’s prices). We stayed for two fountain shows outside the Bellagio and walked for two hours on the Strip. Next morning, we concluded with a visit to the Venetian (canals of Venice amidst the shops) and The MGM Grand. We thought we would try to catch some wildflowers in Death Valley and do only a driving trip through. The evening talk on the history of the pioneers, mining towns, and lore of Death Valley was the finest of all of the four we attended in the two national parks. Charles Schwab’s ancestors owned a mine there. Next morning we decided to cut our visit short and redo in February 2010, so it was a few hour visit and tour of Scotty’s Castle and Ubehebe Crater. Exit west through the Panamint Mountains and then on winding State Route 178 south of Lake Isabella to Bakersfield for Costco food and gas and then straight home. It’s a little bit difference with an Odyssey versus my last trip on 178 in a Mazda RX7. All in all, a very enjoyable 7¾ days.