Flutterby™! : Weekend notes

One of the things I like about "Easter" is that when the Christians assimilated the spring rites, they didn't even bother to rename the holiday. See "Oestrus". So what with the start of spring this past weekend and Easter come next, and the season being one of birth and fertility, I think it's appropriate that I announce some changes. Some of you have already heard, but: After only a short time, I'm leaving Planet 9 to take a position at Digital Fish. And I'd like to specifically thank Larry for a conversation we had back in 1995, and Ziffle for his repeated pointing me to Rich Dad, not because I'm taking Robert Kiyosaki's route of real estate, but because it got me thinking about risk, asset building, what I know how to do and what I don't understand, and why I live in the Bay Area in the first place.

This is a big step for me, for reasons which I hope will show over the next year or so, but it's something that I think will refocus me in good ways.

Which is a long way of explaining one of the several reasons that Charlene and I felt like we really needed to get the hell out of town last weekend. Despite the forecasts we headed down to Yosemite. And I've still never seen Yosemite in weather like that. So we hit the valley, stopped at Bridal Veil Falls, realized we weren't going to see anything, and turned the car south on 41 up to Badger Pass.

It's been a while since I've been in the snow, but we got the chains on before other tourists in the changing area had figured out which end to lay down, rented some skis, and got a lesson for Charlene. I'd still remembered most of what little cross country skiing I'd done ages ago, but, alas, nothing more: I still don't have a telemark turn.

We had fun banging around in the snow for a bit, then went back into the valley to see the film at the visitor's center in the valley. This was the first time I'd ever wanted to sit inside and watch something other than the natural surroundings when I've been in Yosemite valley. Alas, they weren't showing the film that day, but in a conversation about flowers in the area, the guy at the desk of the visitor's center said "try the hike to Hite Cove".

When we got there the light (what little there was) was fading fast, but we did see a few wildflowers, despite the fact that the lack of sun meant that the poppies at least were closed up tight:

On Sunday we decided that forecasts of clearing weather or no, we weren't going to see much back in the valley, so we toodled up Highway 49 through gold country. More on that tomorrow.