And more...

 
 
Shriners!
 
Girls with ponies!
 

Music too

 
 
 

You know you're in Kernville

 
When you have to wait at the pumps for the roadgrader to finish fueling up.

 
And Josh makes a beeline to the Brewery...

Bubbles Beach

 
From the west side of the river, yesterday afternoon
 
 

And now we are in Kernville

 

Snowy day in Kernville

Shots captured from the web cams.


I wish we were in Kernville today!

Note the new windows on the barn, which we're starting to think of as the "lodge".

Fire at the Monte Carlo

It was rather fascinating on Friday, playing a poker tournament at the Orleans while watching the fire at the Monte Carlo on TV. And amazingly banal; most of the players weren't in the least bit concerned with the events barely two miles away.

Caucusians for Obama

Today was the Nevada Caucuses. Neither of us had ever lived in a caucus state, so we were both virgins. As it turns out, so were many (if not most) of the other caucusoids.


It took place in a lecture hall a couple miles away, at the (Community) College of Southern Nevada. [Recently, the students insisted on removing the term "community" from the college name, complaining that it was somehow pejorative. Sure beats "Junior College", but there's no satisfying some people.)

Two precincts were using the same building. Our precinct was typical of our neighborhood, a rather older demographic than the other precinct represented there (many more students, I think.)


The process was pretty simple. A bunch of boilerplate was read. We counted off the number of people in the room. We then arranged ourself by preference -- Hillary supporters over there, Obama supporters over here, etc. Then each of the groups was counted; the threshold was 15%, and we had 90-some people, so 14 supporters were needed to get a delegate. Since the Edwards and uncommitted supporters did not meet that threshold, we all got to cajole them into joining our own side for 15 minutes. Most of them went to the Obama side. The total, when all was said and done, was something like 54 for Hillary and 48 for Obama, resulting in 4 and 3 delegates respectively. We then chose the delegates -- both of us would have loved to, but he have to be in California when the county convention occurs. That was it.



It was fun meeting a lot of our neighbors in a different context. Those we knew, we knew from meeting on the street while walking Stella, so for a few it was the first safe (e.g., neither of us with overly protective dogs) meeting.

Bambi states her preference...

The River Rose

Check out this shot captured from the webcam this afternoon.

Early this morning, the Kern surged from barely 300 cubic-feet-per-second to over 3000.

Here's the chart from Corps of Engineers hourly report website.

04JAN2008 2100     351
04JAN2008 2200     521
04JAN2008 2300     521
04JAN2008 2400     710
05JAN2008 0100     987
05JAN2008 0200    2444
05JAN2008 0300    2968
05JAN2008 0400    3069
05JAN2008 0500    2912
05JAN2008 0600    2638

Click to enlarge the photo and notice the waterline as the river recedes. In this shot it's running at about 1400cfs, which is about 200cfs more that it PEAKED at last year

Josh says the rain gauge showed nearly two inches of rain. Whoeeee whatta way to begin the new year!

New Year's Eve

The final course of 2007...

We went to an "Early Bird" dinner dance at the
Orleans to end the year and had a lovely time with Aileen.

New Year's Eve

(the photos are dim, but as usual, click and slideshow,etc)

Dancing With The Stars

Sunday night, we went to see the live tour from the
immensely popular TV show


The Orleans Arena was absolutely packed with fans,
but the only way you could actually see the dancers was via
the huge video screen.


Unfortunately, the sound was cranked up to literally
sick-making levels and we left after one number
with our ears ringing and our stomachs churning,
the fight-or-flight mechanism at work from the
audio assault.

But that didn't stop this little girl in the row in front of us from enjoying every moment!

The final Fronter

Yesterday we had to go to the Apple Store at Fashion Show Mall
and got some great views of the remaining rubble.

Final Fronter

Christmas Day at the Four Seasons

We spent a long afternoon enjoying a five course dinner
at the Veranda restaurant, and admired the amazing work
of the pastry chef's Christmas Village.

Xmas Day

Marty's

For the past three years,we've gone to Marty's for Christmas Eve,

As always, it is a special delight

Xmas Eve

Christmas Cat

 
Slick gets into the spirit.

Xmas in LV @ home

We had a little gathering to decorate the tree.

There's Tim, Aileen, Dave, Josh, Marty and Bambi


Of course, Elvis is always with us...

Christmas in Las Vegas

We actually went shopping at the "Fashion Show Mall" today. Where they usually have the fashion show, there were showgirls backing up Santa. Again the iPhone.

Aluminium Deer

I talked to the driver of this truck towing a trailer of cast aluminum deer down Isabella Blvd. He called them "poor man's bronzes" and sold 'em for three hundred and fifty bucks. I liked the sleigh-like array and took the photo with my iPhone.

Seasonal Scenic Sampler

And Slideshow!

Scenic Sampler

"Christmas in Kernville"

(Josh posted the following on his wikipedia page)

And in another world: last week I was in my tiny adopted California hometown, and it was time for Christmas in Kernville. In the pouring rain (it turned to snow the following night), the local vocal ensemble had us all singing carols. When it came to "Silent Night", one of the women jokingly suggested we do it in German. I foolishly piped up in agreement, and Cheryl (the ringleader) exclaimed, "OK, we'll do three verses in English and then Josh will sing one in German." So all of a sudden, here I am with a bunch of mostly pretty serious Christians, with a live-action creche scene being enacted next to us, singing Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht solo. Luckily for me (and the listeners) Cheryl had picked a good key. Apparently it went well; several of the ladies got all weepy. My wife said to our neighbor, "Nothing demonstrates Christmas in Kernville better than a Jew singing Silent Night in German." First time I'd soloed that song since before my voice changed in 1966... --jpgordon ∇∆∇∆ 22:35, 24 December 2007

Of course, there's much more to Christmas in K'ville,
like the annual White Elephant Party (aka wrap-your-crap)

where the gang gets together and draws lots for the best of the worst. Hilarity ALWAYS ensues...

White Elephant Party

(click the image then click slideshow!)

This breaking news from the Californian:

Captured from the webcam this AM

Two Worlds