Sep 022018
 

So I recently came back from traveling. For the first time in some years I flew, and while the security theater certainly seemed to be better and more smoothly run than i remember from times past, the seating has only gotten worse. On the modern 737 I took on a few legs, they’d even gone to the bother of cutting the drink & food tray in half because there was simply no chance in hell of opening up the full size tray. Feh.

Anyway, as might be expected I took a number of photos throughout the exercise. Since they were taken with my cel phone, as might be expected they’re not the greatest. But they might be of interest.

The photos below are from shortly after liftoff from Salt Lake International. The flight path took us over the Great Salt Lake… which seems to have become little more than a meandering stream through the desert. Behold:

In the photos below, the slightly redder area to the left is Antelope Island. The lighter tan region *should* be a lake.

 Posted by at 2:40 pm
Aug 192018
 

Sunrise over the Wasatch mountains, taken from the window of a moving car. Not the best photos, certainly didn’t capture the colors involved, but still potentially of interest. All the smoke from California has really meddled with things.

 Posted by at 3:29 pm
Aug 072018
 

Yesterday afternoon I drove the surprisingly short distance up to the site of the Goring fire from a few days ago. Not  a lot to see except several miles of scorched earth. The difference between this sort of fire and what’s currently tearing the ecoptopia of California apart? Here in Utah, this is essentially the desert. All there is to burn are dried weeds and scrub, probably amounting to a few ounces of fuel per square yard. But the Ecological Success Story fires in California seem to be burning down more heavily forested areas… potentially hundreds of pounds of fuel per square yard. The fire here burn quick and burn *out* quick. The scorched land you see here will be back to normal next year. Apart from any structures that may have burned, this was not far off from simply mowing the lawn with fire.

Of course, the air quality was still wretched for a few days.

This photo was from a few miles away, showing what the landscape looks like, unburned. Not exactly Mirkwood.

 Posted by at 1:08 am