While your jet plane is parked...

The holidays equal frantic travel time for far too many folk. If they're lucky, they are heading to some place warm, like Florida or Phoenix or Hawaii. Otherwise, they're likely serving time in a weatherbound airport in cold country. At least this Christmas season; our own snow storm is supposed to arrive tonight, but I'm beginning to have my doubts about the snow part. However, back to the subject of this post which is all those specialized vehicles that routinely show up to prep a jet for its journey whatever the season.

Above is TUG, who moves all those carts below. My favorite of the lot is the portable, mechanical ramp; bet it would make a dandy but dangerous work-out machine. I tried hard to get a picture of the moving jet entryway, but no luck except for the small portion showing in the left hand corner below. Shooting from inside an airport terminal isn't your best photo op, as I found out during my travels this past summer.

The rear truck appears to connect the plane to the fuel source -- a hookup to a line that apparently runs beneath the pavement. In front is the cart for arriving baggage. And below, the specialized jack-knife truck to convey the catered goodies, even in these days of minimal inflight foodservice. Of course, it does also deliver a replenished bar, which is a paying proposition. Can't forget that!

Bags about to take off on a trip are in the open carts, awaiting ramp time at the jet.

Other than paying passengers, there is also the paying freight which wasn't scheduled on a UPS or FedEx jet. Wonder what sort of perishable item is being sent northwards out of Phoenix -- not that I'll ever know.

Seasonal Links: Well, not all of them, but several. Starting with the annual Carnival of Christmas, which will link you to some sixty holiday posts (including my gingerbread houses). And, in case you were caught up in the saga of dotter's toasted gingerbread house, here is the replacement goodie. The Spadefoot Toad returned to a snowy middle west for the holidays, with winter wonderland pictures. Finally, Firefly Forest has posted a pair of pictures of Arizona's elegant trogan, a colorful bird that I'd love to see just one time for real.

Merry Christmas to One and to All!

My dotter brought this lovely Christmas card from the granddotter and I decided that it would be my card to everyone out in the strange and wacky on-line world that we share. Wishing you...

A MOST MERRY AND WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS

And may the spirit of Christmas last you all the coming year until Christmas is once again with us! Thank you for your comments, your readership and your support.

3 sights on the Bagdad Road

I'd swear that when the LH and I first drove the Bagdad Road, there was an observatory on top of that distant small mountain near Hillside. And I'd swear that I read, probably in the Courier, that it had something to do with World War II, like scanning the skies for Japanese troop transport planes launching an invasion or some such. Today, of course, the facility is presumably up-to-date and all about microwaves and cell phones, serving the ranchers scattered throughout the western Yavapai boonies.

Furthermore, I'd say that they need their cell phones, inasmuch as there are absolutely no landlines stretched across these poles that follow the road between the Santa Maria and the Hillside turnoff. Of course, it might be electricity that is missing. However, the cross pieces should serve the hawks well.

And -- great luck. As dotter and I stopped to photograph the naked poles, who should be watching us but a lone phainopepla. Amazing: that bird just sat there (at almost bird distance) while we tried to steady our hand-held zoom shots. It appears to have worked. We won't see phainopeplas up in Prescott til summer.

More Links: Windy Skies, the Mumbai blogger writes of his city's cabbies and the Islamist attacks. Though he doesn't post often, his writing is thoughtful, sensitive and opens doors to a totally unknown world. In a more light-hearted vein, Ballard Avenue displays chilly flamingos covered with that recent Seattle snow. And one more piece analyzing the problems of Detroit's Big Three by a libertarian, Megan McArdle, who writes a damn good economics blog for The Atlantic. Finally, there's a new internet subject matter aggregator, AllTop by name, with beaucoup interesting links to sites that have been vetted by the founders, their friends or users. If you're like me, you need more interesting links like you need a hole in the head, but then Walking Prescott was listed! I'm very flattered, even though it was under the heading "rural".

White Spar wildfire remains

My LH hated I-17; that's the reason we drove the White Spar so many times over the years to visit my mom when she lived down in Sun City. And I have to grant that all those curves take one through beautiful mountain scenery. Besides, if you drive up I-17, you completely miss the pines as you enter Prescott. (Of course, when I was a kid, SR 89 (then US 89) was the only paved road between Phoenix and US 66 across the top of Arizona -- and considered a very fine highway, indeed.)

Returning from out desert excursion Sunday, the dotter drove us back via the White Spar, which is now a heavy-duty reminder of the 2002 Indian Fire that came within three miles of downtown Prescott. The scenery on both sides of the highway consists of dead snags and downed trees for several miles.

Plus an occasional cluster of trees that survived, but lost their lower branches.

There's only one good change as we wait many years for the trees to grow back -- it is now possible to get a good view of the White Spar mountain for which the road was named. Because the big quartz outcroppings were previously hidden by ponderosas, I had never realized exactly why the road got its name -- even though one of my uncles worked for the highway department back in the aught-20s when the road was built.

Linkables: Remember our last storm? Dagny got a beautiful image of Thumb Butte in the clouds (and from her office window, yet!) And, speaking of photography, here's the URL for the Prescott Camera Club.

Cactus in our desert

We're lucky, here in Prescott, to have our own lonesome and reasonably private desert, free from encroaching highways or Phoenicians. Just get on Iron Springs and head west, toward Bagdad. Saturday, the dotter wanted a real Arizona sunshine fix; what could be better than a trip down to the Santa Maria River the day before her return to darkest Alaska. While she hiked, I looked for cacti. What I found:

Excellent, multi-branched saguaros, growing right near the river's edge. These are obviously very tall old trees, with even the limbs growing limbs! Note the evidence of our recent soaking rains -- the white fuzzy tops of the cactus below, preparing to blossom.

There were several types of opuntia within a short walk of the car. Your standard prickly pear above and its cousin, the beaver tail cactus below; the beaver tail has spectacular magenta blossoms. Did you know that the prickly pear is native to at least 45 of the 50 states and most Canadian provinces?

I'm not sure if these (above, below) are the same brand of cholla or near relatives. In any event, you do not want to tangle with one, though their blossoms, like most of our cactus, are beautiful in season. Cholla are also in the opuntia family.

More cholla. Unfortunately, those mean spikes are all that show up in the tangled mass of the little Christmas cactus, characterized by pencil thin branches and small, bright red fruit.

And yet another cholla. If you have heard the term, jumping cactus, meet one. Also known as teddy bear cactus, this is one plant to keep at a distance. Though they don't actually jump, those pretty joints quickly attach to anyone or thing that touches them and break off, the idea being to start a new teddy bear cactus elsewhere. In the southwest, one hears apocrophal tales of men who peed too close to such a cactus with a very painful aftermath.

This particular teddy bear cactus was collapsing, as the main stem died, shedding all those joints to start new plants.

The barrel cactus is a short, stout, unbranched plant. All but one of the barrels I saw yesterday was growing out from beneath a so-called nursery tree or shrub (below), which provides shelter from the hot, drying sun when a seed sprouts and the tiny cactus begins its slow growth.

The prickly pear (above) started in the shade beneath a nursery tree, spread and continues to spread. Seeing the barrels and optuntias 'neath trees and shrubs gave me the idea of inspecting the assorted palo verdes, mesquites and cat claws to see if I could find a young saguaro. I lucked out -- take a look at the adolescent cactus below. It is probably 30+ years old, by the way, which should give you some idea of the age of those saguaros at the beginning of this post.

Not your everyday 3-in-1 printer!

Fellow blogger, techie Rich Charpentier has just joined the Prescott art community with a bang. Over at the Ian Russell Gallery is a display of his photographs of the local scene , processed into spectacular, sometimes other-worldly HDR prints -- a technique from the age of PhotoShop and its successors. Dotter & I paid a call on Rich yesterday (below); I wanted to get a good look at his fancy new machinery & she (OmegaMom) wanted to buy one of his prints. We both achieved our goals.

Here it is, in the gallery back room: Rich's new HP printer for high-res, high fidelity giclee prints from photographs, paintings or other art work. Take a look at those ink cartridges, not one of the six is a standard printer color -- these are among the extra inks that are needed for exact matching of the colors in a work of art. All told, the printer uses 12 separate colors, including three blacks! Rich's business is the first and only such service in this area. In fact, the prices are reasonable enough that I am thinking of ordering a few large prints from my LH's wonderful nature photography.

Did I mention that Rich's machine also makes H*U*G*E prints?

This reproduction of a painting of Thumb Butte was printed on canvas -- just one of the possibilities of the new technologies. Do I sound enthusiastic? Yes, I am. Indeed.

Last night it rained...

...and it rained and it rained. Finally, Storm 2 chilled enough to give us a beautiful dusting of snow about the time we forced ourselves out of bed this morning. I hate to think what it might have totalled had all that wetness been frozen! The dotter had planned to drive up the hill to Flag yesterday or today, but thought better of it. Don't know how much snow fell in the High Country.

Tis most photogenic, however, and the day was just warm enough so no ice to slip on. Sson, BTW, reports that snow actually fell at his home in Cajun Louisiana a day or so ago.

By this afternoon, the snow line had moved well up the side of Woodchute Mountain when dotter and I drove over to Prescott Valley. As you can see, she did enjoy a small taste of sunshine. Our next storm is not due until Tuesday next.

Chairs to die for

I don't normally go out of my way to photograph chairs. But send anybody with a camera over to Casa Bonita on East Gurley for dinner and I'll bet that the first thing he or she does is grab a bunch of images. How could one resist such colorful objects?

Birds ... mouth-watering fruit ... warm suns ... smiling sunflowers, all to feast the eyes.

As an extra, two side chairs that were not repeated in the dining area. All I can say is "Wow!"

Now for Some Links: The copyright problems of Scrabulous have driven OmegaDad back to his blog, with a new post -- the first since November aught seven. A grump. Perhaps a little curmudgeonly competition might cause the bro down in sunny, warm OZ to revivify his blog (hint, hint, hint). On a totally different subject, Future Pundit reports on one of those studies, this particular bit of research absurdity revealing that a taste of a truffle (the chocolate kind) may be linked to a desire for other high end products. My take? Yumm. Next, Stitchwort of The Stringbag tells the tale of a Lady Ventriloquist who turns out to have been her grandmother. In closing, one of my favorite sources for satellite pictures of the earth: NASA's Earth Observatory OTD page; you can set yourself up for a daily email reminder, BTW.