Adventures in Onionism

 Did I go to Alaska? Man, that feels like forever ago. As soon as I got back, I got to work on the house in Reno that Amy and I bought. We closed before Alaska but the sellers needed a short rentback. As soon as we saw the house empty I realized there was a bunch of work to do. We painted the whole interior, we had an electrician put GFIs on every circuit and improve wiring, had HVAC people do their thing, and then of course after we painted and moved into the new place and spent too much time cleaning the rental we were moving out of, the electrician did more work requiring drywall repair and repainting. At least we know the paint color--Swiss Coffee!  The most stressful thing was installing a new exterior front door. God, so stressful. I would trade a lot of stats knowledge for just a little carpentry skills. The new door closes well and is plumb and level and square and true, but I put pressure treated lumber under it instead of a PVC sill, and the latch side reveal is a li...

I ran the Ruby Crest in Nevada in June. I've been hearing about a couple trails in Nevada for the last few years: the Ruby Crest and the Toiyabe Crest . 35 and 70-mile long National Recreational Trails, built by the CCC during the Great Depression, and supposedly still hikeable. Having hiked some epic CCC trails, and with the word "Crest" in the name, I was pretty excited to do the Rubies. It was a very nice run, but it wasn't as great as I'd hoped. Maintenance on the trail is poor (but does appear to happen on rare occasions) so it wasn't too hard to follow, but long chunks, especially in the southern portion, aren't necessarily run-able with the overgrowth. I also didn't think the trail was particularly crest-y, in that it didn't really seem to follow the ridgeline. The northern half is definitely scenic, with high alpine lakes.  The trail is worth hiking, but I probably wouldn't go too far out of your way to do it. Yep, G...

I've been on the road for the last few weeks. In telling you about it, I think the most important thing is that I deactivated my Facebook account and deleted Twitter, Slack, and Instagram from my phone. As a result, I read a book. ( Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver.) I'd tell you how long it's been since I read a book, but that would require that I log in to Facebook since my Goodreads account is linked to Fb. So let's just say it's been a while, and that  I hate the Internet and want my old brain back. I visited six places on my trip: Nevada, Southwest Oregon, Portland, Chicago, Ann Arbor, and the Oregon Coast. First, I drove to Nevada (with a brief detour to Royal Gorge on the American River in the Sierras) and ran the very nice Ruby Crest trail with Brian. We also tried to do the East Humboldt range the next day, but it didn't work out because the trail doesn't exist anymore. Second, I drove to remote Powers, OR, where I locked myself in a ...

I built a bed for the back of the truck and went to Nevada. It was fun, but very cold. I would prefer a cabin so I could drive less and also get work done. Tonopah. Not much. Spencer's Hot Springs outside Austin, NV. Recommended. Virginia City. Cute.