Short notes,
in reverse order.

Mays Rock Ranch. What a gem.

Nobody wants your stupid ballroom.

Third bake and this time I got the open crumb I was looking for. Taste and texture is nice a springy, not too sour. The variables changes was a longer restart on the levain and fresh flour. The hydration I lowered to make the dough easier to work with. 72% hydration with a 24h fed levain from the fridge. Gentle stretch and folds to preserve structure. Bulk rise was 4h at 78f/60% humidity in a proofer. Shaped then put into the fridge for the next morning bake for approximately 14h.

Yesterday spent the day rappelling. Rapping on a 7.5mm is spicey, mostly because my ogre hands can’t get a firm grip on the brake strand. Added friction and a third hand VT was nice. VT prusiks can bind on a twin 11mm rope. The rope needs to be tended and the number of wraps matter. The VT under heavy load will want to spiral the twins so you have to keep the strands parallel. Luckily unlike a normal prusik it can easily be redone but transferring the load needs to be puzzled out. Also setting the VT higher will help when passing the knot on descent. I had set it too close so the space between the VT and the knot once it’s passed wasn’t sufficient. Would I ever rap a twin 11? Probably not but the goal was to experiment and learn

What’s paying for this war? Your healthcare subsidies they took away. Who pays for for the deaths, destruction, global chaos? The taxpayers. Who holds them accountable? We do. Vote. It matters.

My mind was wandering about the tapestry we weave daily. Momentary connections made at the coffee shop ordering a latte, our friends, our companions, etc. Some threads briefly touch, some leave only to return later in life, some are lost forever by loss or estrangement. We sometimes yearn to tug a thread and refuses to be pulled, or we build new threads. All these moments, however brief, are part of the experience. I tried to get GPT to visualize it.

In my small world, I’m glad to have my companions. Unperturbed by the machinations of men. A simple life.

Meshtastic to increase location privacy on the primary channel also has the side effect that the “precise” is 15 where 32 is really really precise. It makes sense as most users sit in the public channel but be aware if your primary channel is not public, you have to go changing some settings on your own to get the fidelity you want. Also respectfully, they limit the public firmware to not broadcast beyond an hour to reduce mesh congestion. Even if you’re on your on primary channel, remember you share that frequency slot so don’t spam the air. Also it’s incredibly annoying to figure out if a node has a GPS fix. Writing a script to read that out was game changing.

Even in the concrete jungle that is LA, a 7mi jog to Elysian from DTLA was awesome. What a gem. Traffic is not the only thing that surprises me about the City of Angels.

It’s tiring to say “we don’t condone political violence” and in the same breath continue to promote it through marginalizing each other, continuing to foster division and hate. I’ll honor your opinions if I believe it’s based on integrity and the goal of making each other’s lives better. But there is no credible evidence this administration cares about integrity. It’s about the grift at the cost of you and me.

SAR is 100% volunteer, self funded. Some say we should get paid and I’m a strong advocate of “no”. We serve because it’s the right thing to do and the purity of that service to sacrifice to bring others home will be tainted by the pursuit of compensation.

If you know the sci-fi trope of the rich and powerful living in cities in the skies while the plebs struggle on the ground, or when religion is used to turn women into breeders in a religious autocracy it portends a real future. Billionaires are out of touch with reality. You think they have any idea the struggles of the common man? Money ultimately corrupts all things.

You buy fancy toys and really all they want is a scrap of paper to sit on.

It’s tiring keeping up with the news. Diaper Donny started this war over his hubris and the world is paying for his stupidity, not just Americans. In the meanwhile his pals are loving the money coming from “prediction” markets. Interesting that Don Jr has stakes in Kalshi? Coincidence? Corruption in plain sight folks.

I present, Larry the Loaf.

Meshtastic integration for relaying of SAR teams locations without cellular with full integration into CalTopo web. That’ll be a fun project.

This is what happens when your cat can reach frondy things. Bad cat.

The last time I attempted a sourdough loaf was 2019. Remember Covid? Well 2026 and I got a dried starter from the Oregon trail starter community and Steve the Starter is quite happy so today we teamed up to make a loaf. We’ll see how the bake goes tomorrow morning!

We had two recent call-outs, both fatalities due to heat stroke. Remember, heat stroke is not the same as dehydration. Heat exhaustion to heat stroke may be stoppable by extreme rapid cooling. This is the bodies inability to thermal regulate. It doesn't matter your hydration if your body cannot cool itself. If you find yourself in heat exhaustion, stop, find shade, cool off. If you vomit or experience a change in mental status, SOS immediately. This is emergent and life threatening.

There is a sense of yearning for the next sunrise when you see the sun set.

Using AI has drastically accelerated my work but it's not a cure all but a force amplifier. You still need to know how to lay bricks to be an architect.

Thinking about the seconds that pass, all these moments we can't get back.