Lock 7 Wednesday afternoon.

River photos are taken Monday afternoon. The last one Oliver's hand is at the high water mark on the sign post

Are there any particular car museums or factories within a day's trip of Lucca that would be interesting for us to visit? I suspect that there wouldn't be as many on Sardegna, but one could check their, too.

Happy birthday to Kate!

Excerpt from the Gazette last night.

"The locks along the Mohawk River are holding despite raging flood waters, but state officials fear a possible problem with Lock 7 in Niskayuna.

High water is digging a path around some of the locks, particularly Lock 7, Canal Corp. spokesman R. W. Groneman said.

The corporation is bringing in dirt and stone to fight the erosion, he said. The state Power Authority has a small hydroplant at Lock 7 and is organizing the erosion-fighting efforts.

“The Canal Corp. knows of no structural problems with the dam,” he said.

Schenectady County officials were advising residents of about 30 homes near Lock 7 to evacuate earlier this afternoon as the structural integrity of the lock was questioned.

Emergency responders were going door to door in the affected areas, and Schenectady County was utilizing its emergency response system to call residents directly.

Although the lock has not failed, erosion around the lock could lead to a sudden flood. If a sudden event damages the lock, county spokesman Joseph McQueen said, it would happen too quickly to organize an orderly evacuation.

“We wouldn’t have time,” he said. “We don’t want people to be stuck down there, so we’re asking for a voluntary evacuation now.”

While Lock 7 is not in danger, some water is seeping through an earthen embankment at the Vischer Ferry dam behind the lock. The state Power Authority, which maintains the dam as a hydropelectrical plant, called for evacuations of 30 nearby houses as a precaution.

Authority spokeswoman Christine Pritchard said the affected embankment makes up only a small part of the dam."

In summary, there is a problem with Lock 7, but it's not the dam, and it's not the lock. The problem is that the embankment next to the lock is eroding and if it erodes to much the lock will fail, but the lock is not in danger. The embankment is a small part of the dam, but remember, there is nothing wrong with the dam.

Malta for sale likely to be replaced by housing.

Power went out at 9:30 am Sunday. Power came on a 1:30pm Sunday. Everything is good at our house right now. We made sand bags for the old basement with money bags left by the previous owner.

"Yankees hit a record 3 grand slams in a rout of A's" (Associated Press, August 25, 2011) ... to lose the series to the A's (59-71) in New York by only 2-1 instead of 3-0. In this context, I wouldn't necessarily say that the Yankees have it all together this week.

Another headline that could have been used and would have conveyed more information would have been, "Despite hitting a record 3 grand slams in one game, the Yankees have their worst series against the A's since July 1, 2007." They need to better than that to win the pennant. Just sayin.

Do you think Noah is still reading the this blog?

Happy birthday to Cyndy!

Saw this in San Fransisco.

Happy birthday, Megan!

MAWWAGE . . . is what brings here together today. Have you the wing?

Pacific Coast Highway

GRRRRRRRRRRRR

Oliver in San Francisco

Cyndy and Oliver in San Francisco

Phil and Oliver in Dad's Kitchen.

Cyndy, Big Tree.

Rachel is very good at growing weeds.

The key to invasive plant studies is data. Got to have data.


Rachel's greenhouse.

That looks interesting.

Greenhouses.

UC Davis cat litter research center.

Jonathan

Rehearsal

Rehearsing. Looks good.

Tres Hermanas.

Whee.

Huevos made Noah go something something. Go crazy? Don't mind if I do.

Elliot wedding.

Whee.

Chando's Tacos. Very good, the birria was not goat based.

The trip was nearly ruined by Old Sacramento.

All done.

Grass Toast

Does it look like someone is gearing up for a big party? A family friend dropped by with the mother of all margarita makers- that's what friends are for.
-Rachel

I left Fort Lauderdale at 3:30 am on Saturday (on no sleep) to be at Sebring for when the gate opens at 6 am. I ended up being the first one at the facility and waiting for the gate guy to let me in when it was still dark out. The car ran well all day, my gps receiver indicated a maximum speed of 124 mph. In my second session I ended up having a big spin at turn 15, similar to this video only I didn't go over the curbing. My friend had car trouble and had to replace his coolant expansion tank so I was also the last to leave the facility, making it my own version of the 12 hours of Sebring. I drove a total of 500 miles (200 on track) in one day and realized that driving on a race track is less fun without sleep.

Saratoga Rail Station. There was a passenger train with all CSX labeled equipment. This may be the new North Creek train. It was an all CSX crew also. There were CP workers observing as well. The amtrak train was 30 minutes late from NYC.