Wind & Tumble Weeds At LIGO

Today there was no chance of running our instrument for Gravitational Wave detection: we had wind.

With steady winds around 40-50 mph (and gusts 10-20mph higher), our buildings were being pushed around and in turn were wiggling our Test Masses (big mirrors) to a point where we could not lock-up our 2k interferometer. I took this opportunity to venture outside, and snap a couple of video clips of tumbleweeds invading our facility (and overtaking our bridge). Enough talk, here are the movies:

Here I get hit in the head with a tumble weed (at about t = 15sec).




It was hard to keep my eyes open for this shot!




This is a shot looking down the X-arm. The tumble weeds look like running animals on the desert floor.




A shot as I was being pushed down the hill.

The Hanford site eventually shut down some of the main roads going into the Hanford site due to high winds. Tomorrow the "tumbleweed baling" begins!

"My Pony Threw Me, And Now She's Dead"

[ Quote from Philbert in Pow Wow Highway]

The Crash Scene

I was in the snowy mountains of the Blue Mountains with my brother, his girlfriend, and my two dogs. We had just finished a nice snow shoeing trip (http://www.yelp.com/bi...). After feeling a bit tuckered from an awesome snow workout, we were all ready to hit Waitsburg and check out some of their cool establishments. We hopped in my truck, and slowly left the Sno-Park.

Johnny Cash's "The Legend Of John Henry's Hammer" was playing on my iPod, and during this track, I took a leftward curve in the road and felt a little slip on the road. For a second or two we slid toward the UP-side of the hill, but the road then curved to the right, and this is when I lost it. We were now sliding full on toward the downside of the hill to the valley creek below. We were going slow, but we just kept sliding toward the edge. I had no control, and the edge of the road approached. The Johnny Cash song was still playing.

My Up-ended Rig

The nose of the vehicle thenwent down first and the butt-end swung forward (rotating us 180deg). Then we rolled 2-3 times down the hill (30-40ft below). The air bags never deployed (we were going slow & we were rolling along the long axis). As the world rolled around me down the hill, I couldn't help thinking of the scene in the movie The Fugitive when Harrison Ford and others rolled down a hill inside of a prison bus. Gunner and Gomez ended up flying from the back of the truck up to where Asia was sitting---acting as air bags! It seemed like it took forever, but the truck eventually came to a rest on the valley floor. We all ended up upside down. Asia and I were able to shake ourselves and take stock of ourselves. Tee appeared to have blacked out, but once I gave him a once over, and unbuckled him, he fell from the seat and then immediately woke up and started gathering all of our stuff from the wreckage.

We were fine, and Asia immediately climbed up the hill to the road and flagged down a couple of vehicles for help. The sheriff and the tow truck arrived fairly quickly. I had a one of Tee's police baseball caps in my truck by chance. He grabbed it, and when the sheriff arrived he jumped into action helping the sheriff handle the accident scene. We were ultimately on the scene for a couple of hours while the tow truck intricately maneuvered my dead truck from out of the valley below.

Pulling It Out

When all is said and done, all the males in the truck emerged no worse for wear. Asia appeared to be unscathed, but she ended up spraining her foot (leaving her crutch/cane bound for a couple of weeks). Still, we were so lucky. It could have been so much worse. I'm amazed and thankful for Nissan's engineering of the Xterra cab--it really held up well and protected us.

Now we have a crazy story to tell everyone we survived. It was very action-movie-like.

City Of Roses: PDX, Salsa, & Donuts

The City of Roses

Made an overnight trip to Portland to check out the City of Roses. It had been atleast year since I'd last been there. I stayed downtown in the area south of the Pearl District and Burnside. The primary reason for the trip was a show: Afro-Cuban All Stars at the springy McMennamin's Crystal Ballroom.

Arrived in PDX around 4:30pm and headed to my hotel: the stylish Ace Hotel. I must admit I tripped out on the hotel, because I had a bit of déjà vu looking at the photos of this hotel. I actually stayed here 10 years ago when it was the old Clyde Hotel--back then, it was a bit of a decrepit & cheap hotel (with character)--a scene from Drugstore Cowboy was also filmed here. That was a different time. Now the hotel is a cool boutique art-filled hotel. Glad I stayed here.

Ace Hotel Pendelton Blanket

My Room

Later in the evening, I met up with my fellow Tri-Cities salseros for a meal at Mama Mia Trattoria down on 2nd Ave---I love downtown Portland, because there is so much to see and do, and you can easily walk around to wherever you want to go---or you can always take the Max.

After a decent meal, jogged back to The Ace, and slipped into Salsa Gear. I then walked a couple of blocks west and around the corner to The Crystal. This show was part of the larger Portland Jazz Festival. The Crystal Ballroom is a notable venue in that its dancefloor is an old one which is fixed with springs, so you can really get the dancefloor going.

Lilla D'Mone & Her Band

The opening band was Lilla D'Mone. She's a sultry singer whose music spans jazz to R&B to reggae. She got the crowd going, and I must admit I jammed up to the stage and was feelin' her. After her set, I found her in the back area and talked to her a little while buying one of her albums (it's actually pretty good). I found out she played at the Democratic National Convention in Denver last year--I was down at that point & she signed my cd: "To Corey, Thanks for the support. Peace, Love, & Music. Lilla D'Mone". Ummmmmm....nice.

Next up: Afro-Cuban All Stars.

Viva Salsa!

This was a big band with three singers, several horn players, percussionists, etc. They immediately got the crowd goin' with some Afro-Cuban salsa. Maybe it is because this was part of the Portland Jazz Festival, but from where I was at (near the stage), most of the crowd (including me) were not dancing salsa---we were all just checkin' out the band and groovin' to the music (solo). Until......

Afro-Cuban All Stars

"Check this dude out! He's dancing better than you," said some random person to my right. I glanced at him and then to who he was talking to: a totally stunning Latina behind me!! After closing my slobbering mouth, I tried to smoothly turn back toward the band.

The woman behind me said something, but I couldn't hear. It was some time around this point, that I ended up stepping on the woman's foot behind me. I turned toward her, and she had a "No you didn't", look on her face.

"Oh, he cannot dance better than me," she said. Her friend was laughing at her because he knew he was pushing her buttons. I simply agreed with her, and bowed down to her skills. And then I grabbed her and danced salsa with her. I tried the basics, and we did alright. We received a bit of attention, because there was no partner dancing going on up where we were. I did the best I could and held on to her. A few cross-body-leads, and spins of her, we were doing alright, but at some p0int our salsa transformed more to "dirty dancing"---I didn't appear to mind. My only regret is not asking for her name, phone number, or another dance.

I have no skills.

Christian "The Salsa Master" & Me

It was alright though. I had such an awesome time. Afro-Cuban All Stars were great, and I danced and sweated the night away. My fellow Tri-Cities salseros kicked butt dancing salsa from the back of the dance floor, and I watched them from the balcony (while I cooled off). After a few encores, the show ended around 12:30-1:00am. The night wasn't over though. Next up: The Mambo Lounge across the river.

At the Mambo, there was another band--CAÑA SON. This was a pure salsa place. Here there was a large dance floor and everyone on the dancefloor was dancing salsa. It was awesome, and packed. Here I watched the pretty awesome dancers from the sidelines, as well as watch the band. I was too chicken to ask for any dances here, but I had a great time, and now know a cool place to go for salsa next time I'm in PDX.

CAÑA SON at the Mambo Lounge



CAÑA SON

Made it back to my room around 3am. What a night.

The next morning, my main objective before heading home was a getting a donut. Not just any donut, but a Voodoo Doughnut. I walked to Voodoo, and was surprised to find a line going almost around the block. I grabbed a place in line, and waited for about 30 minutes. It was worth the wait. Voodoo had a menagerie of donuts of every kind. I knew what I wanted: the bacon maple bar! Surprisingly, this donut wasn't as scary as it sounds. It was actually very tasty. I can't believe that this was my first time to the Voodoo---how I've deprived myself!

The Donut Line

This Is Just Some Of The Donut Craziness

What a weekend. I've always loved Portland, but this trip renewed the love affair. Portland is like a woman. When you feel her, you're alive. It can be rainy, but it flashes you sunlight, like flashes of skin. Ok....I better stop.

I won't be such a stranger to Portland--no doubt.

NOLA: Bow Up On It!

The Crew!

A few other LHO-ers (LIGO Hanford Observatory-ers) & I, ventured down to Louisiana for a week of work at our Livingston site. Betsy, Jody, & Hugh worked on Advanced LIGO Suspension work, while Mike & I did some Seismic Isolation commissioning (or atleast we tried). At the end of our week, we ventured down to NOLA (that's New Orleans, LA).

Galatoire's Revisited: The Radkins Experience

While in New Orleans, we stayed right off the French Quarter, and hit Bourbon Street. We tromped around the music-filled, strip-club-clad, drunk-person-inducing blocks for a few hours. We stopped at the Crescent City Brew Pub for a nice meal. Our first choice was Galatorie's, but apparently we were a little too disheveled to be allowed to occupy their establishment. (It's ok. We snapped a few shots of Hugh standing in front of the place---he had been there when he was a kid and was reminiscing about it.)

A Nice Looking Bunch

All in all we had a nice time hanging out in NOLA. Everybody except for me had to get up at the crack of dawn to catch a plane....I, luckily, arranged to have an afternoon flight (but even that ended up being a little early for me! Oh well, planes are meant for sleep anyway!) :)

Is This A Corgi?

Galatoire's & Bourbon

Post Script:
If you're like me, you might not know what the slang in the title means: "Bow Up On It". It's a southern term which roughly means to "get 'er done". You can also flex your arms (body builder-style), and I guess that also looks like a bow. Anyway, it's new to me.

Wish I Were In DC

I would have liked to have made it to D.C. today, but alas, I was on travel and working in Louisiana (but I sported my well-worn Obama shirt). I was working in the Control Room, and it would have been nice to have been able to watch the Inauguration on TV, but we're in Louisiana, and some people are just sore losers & sad little people. So, I got to listen to the inauguration and watch it online, and that did just as well.

A Beautiful Family

Watching From Space (click on photo to get bigger view)

Superheroes