Hobie Kayaking

This photo should be at the end of this series. I am getting ready to get back in the kayak after exploring the dam. You can see my "PFD" or personal flotation device is not buckled on. The adjustment buckles are in a bad position, and they wear into my back when I lean back in the seat. I will redo them, and move them to a different position on the vest so they won't bother me. It helps to be able to operate a sewing machine, and it also helps having a sewing machine that will handle the thickness of the webbing involved. The captions don't match the photos, other than the captions are in the same order as the photos. Stuff is shifting on me when it is viewed full screen. With some minor concentration, it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out what goes with what. Be sure to go all the way to the bottom, as there are some gaps in the captions, and the last caption is at the very bottom of the page, below several other captions, with no photos alongside the last several captions.








This is the view from the front seat of the kayak looking South shortly after we launched at Smith-Moorehouse lake South of Oakley, UT on Sunday July 19, 2009. After we rounded the point ahead and to the left, we saw some people with their dogs. The dogs seemed to be having a good time.








These two dogs were arguing about who could carry the stick back to the shore. The golden colored dog would go fetch the stick, and sometimes the black dog would decide to try to take the stick away from the golden dog. The black dog wouldn't go fetch the stick unless the golden dog went first.








This is the view looking South again after we passed the dogs. The haze in the distance wasn't as evident until I saw the photos. From this position it is about 1.3 kilometers to the end of the lake.








This view is after we rounded the South end of the lake, and had turned back North. From this position, it is about 1.6 kilometers to the dam (the thin light brown horizontal line even with the top of the boat). The boat is about one half kilometer away from us. I was definitely looking at the slopes in the distance as a possibility of launching my paraglider.


This little waterfall is about six inches across at the bottom where it feeds into the lake. There was another smaller waterfall about two meters away from this one. It really sounded nice. Too bad the shores along the lake are too steep to be able to camp alongside the lake. All the camping areas are either above the lake or below it. We checked out the ones above the lake, and there are several that are next to the larger streams that feed the lake. They would be nice to listen to while going to sleep.












This is an eagle's nest about thirty meters up in a dead tree. You can see the head of one of the parents on the left, and the head of the chick on the right. There were quite a few crows or ravens in the area, and we think the parents were taking turns staying with the chick to keep the crows from getting the chick. We never saw the eagles "change the guard."








We stopped here about thirty meters past the eagle's nest and had our picnic lunch. You can see more of our kayak in this photo.













This crane was perched in this pine tree. It had been in a different tree, and moved to this one, a little higher off the ground as we got near it. The photo is a little fuzzy, and I don't know why. I think I was trying to change the exposure setting on the camera by putting my hand in front of the part of the camera that determines the focal length and the exposure setting.












We stopped at the dam, and I got out to look at the spillway. Linda is steadying the kayak. This picture was done before the one that should be at the end,m but is at the first of this post.

Out with the Old, In with the Not as Old

I finally got the mount for the front of my hang glider rack moved from the Old Hajjimobile to the New Hajjimobile on Monday. I bought the tags for the New Hajjimobile yesterday, and called the Humane Society today to donate the Old Hajjimobile to them. Someone will come pick it up tomorrow.

A new Computer

Linda bought me a new computer for Christmas. I decided to go with Linda's recommendation, and go with a HP. It has a camera and everything. Now all I have to do is get all my software loaded. I'll see if I can take a picture of me and post it here.

Fuzzy Wuzzy

I decided to get my hair cut today. I'm mailing the remains to "Locks of Love" where they use donated hair to make prosthetic hair pieces for children who lose their hair due to medical reasons, usually chemo-therapy. I will be starting school next week, and figured I might end up crawling around under an airplane. The way my hair is when I tie it back in a pony tail, it ends up looking almost like this picture by the end of the day. When I was skydiving all the time (several years ago, when the cold didn't bother me as much as it does now) I used to cut my hair in what I called a "skydiver cut." None of my hair could reach my eyes when I cut it like that. I don't have any old photos of what it looked like, but it wasn't nearly as long as it was earlier today. This is a little over three years growth. The last time I cut it, I buzzed it off in preparation for doing "NBC Training" before going to Iraq the first time I went over there. In case you are wondering what "NBC Training" is, it is training to learn how to put on equipment used to protect yourself from a "Nuclear, Biological, or Chemical" attack. When I did the training the first time around, I did mine on Saturday, and watched the other half of our group do theirs on Friday. As I watched people donning and removing their gas masks, I thought it might be very uncomfortable with my long hair. I was also concerned about the heat, and the sand. I figured it would be uncomfortable in the heat, and a lot of work to keep clean, so the easiest way to solve that problem, along with the possible discomfort in donning and removing the gas masks for the training was to whack it off. I buzzed it. There were people I had sat next to for several days that did not recognize me after I cut my hair. This time around, I decided the sand wasn't that bad, and I would deal with the heat when it came time to deal with it, and there were a lot of women who had hair longer than mine, and they didn't buzz their hair off, so I kept it. Lately, my hair has been in the way when I get out in the wind, so I decided it was time to do something. Also, since I am job hunting, it might be easier to pass an interview if I don't look like an old hippie, since I am in the middle of Conservative America. During the time I worked at GuitarCenter.com, I felt like I looked pretty conservative, even with the long hair. In this photo, you can also see the back of my hair in the mirror, and it was pretty long.

This is the view of my four pony tails from the back.You can see the reflection in the mirror, and the two side pony tails hide the two rear ones when viewed from the front.

This is what my hair looked like after the pony tails were cut off, and before it was "styled."

This is the finished product. The lady who cut my hair was great fun. She thought it was great I had wanted to do pictures before and after. If you want to donate your hair to "Locks of Love" you can go to Great Clips, and they will tie your hair into a pony tail, or four in my case, and cut your hair for free. It is the policy of Great Clips to do free hair cuts on these deals. I didn't realize it, but the back of my head, next to my neck, my hair is still brown for about the lower two inches. The rest is very grey. It sucks getting old, but at least, I'm not getting bald also.