On a Gloomy Note

Wow -- a new and interesting shop to explore. That was my reaction when I walked from the library down to Whiskey Row the other day. Located in that beatiful Courtyard Building on Cortez. Then I caught a look at the building directory.

Three empties.

Which brings up Mr. Cat-A's Oddball Observations for the day. Gloom-y. All about closed and/or up-for-sale restaurants. For me, the saddest news of all is the shuttering of the old Pine Cone Inn out the White Spar. You see, I'm old enough to recall family trips up from Phoenix in the summer when I was a kidlet way back in the aught-30s. At that time, there was a wayside inn midway through the mountains at Glen Oaks, but the sight of the Pine Cone Inn meant that we had finally arrived in Prescott. We never stopped for food at the Pine Cone -- it was the Depression 30s, after all . In fact, I had never dined there until we moved back to Arizona in the 80s; not the most exciting fare, but worth it for the nostalgia.

I was also reminded that there's another historic restaurant up on the block: the Kirkland Bar & Steakhouse. I hate the thought that one of the last countryside cowboy bars might not make it through the current economic mess. And on that sad note, let me bring you:

4 Local Real Estate Blogs: There are several more, but most noteworthy is the fact that three are focused on foreclosures. Prescott Area Foreclosures and Expert Foreclosure Helper discuss the current state of the market. A third blog, from the REO Services Group, lists individual properties. All Foreclosures. Prescott Fine Homes, summarizes 2008 area real estate statistics.

Newspaper car on the Square

When I first saw the black car with white messages parked at the Square, it was mid-October. The perp appeared to be a Mr. Bill, who was claiming "victray at the Grand Canyon." Hmm.

Then just the other day, I came across a vehicle with another set of messages: "Walking backward from Los Angeles to New York City; need your support." The style looked familiar, but I wasn't convinced until tonight, when I cross-checked the telephone number. Yep, one and the same.

I sure hope that Mr. Bill or Ace or Gene or whoever gets that web site up, so that I finally know what this car is all about. Don't tell me to call that number -- t'would take all the fun out of my speculations!

Games in the Name of Science: I avoid computer games; haven't the time. Or, rather, I have an addictive personality -- and I'm afraid of spiraling down that bottomless hole. However, a recent article in New Scientist promotes science research projects that wear the veneer of games to make them catch the interest of computer users. There's Galaxy Zoo, where you classify images of distant galaxies; Foldit, a challenge to play with protein structures; Games With a Purpose, to help train computer vision and AI systems; another is Google's image labeler (which I have played). Maybe you can take a chance with your time. In a spare moment, of course.

Contrails to decorate our big skies

When we lived in Chicago, we had one small angle of sky that looked toward the east over Lake Michigan. We called it the Broadway Corridor, named for our street; on our back porch was a small telescope through which we saw some of the more interesting stars of an evening. Of course, here in Arizona, the skies are B*I*G and one sees all kinds of things any time of day. Contrails, for example.

Early morning is one of the two best times to view contrails through my big east-facing windows. When this picture was taken, the AM business flights to and from The Coast were just beginning to rev up.

These sky trails are primarily pointed to and from San Francisco; the one contrail crossing the others is headed either for LA or San Diego. As I best can figure it, Prescott sees three clusters of flight patterns: those heading to/from the Northwest (San Francisco), others to/from the Southwest (SoCal, primarily LA) and a final, smaller group bearing due north/south between Phoenix and the Pacific Northwest. Any other contrails you might see are likely to be military jets. (BTW, I'm quite familiar with those north/south flights, as I accompanied my mother to and from Victoria BC to escape the Valley's hot summers for several years. We always flew just to the east of Prescott, giving me a good chance to check out how the real earth compares to the topo maps.)

Note how these flights are diverging to head for either NorCal or SoCal. Below, traffic headed to LA.

I'm always fascinated by the corkscrew that evolves as the contrails expand and interact with the winds. (Below) Bet that's a military pilot flying against the prevailing traffic pattern -- certainly not a liner that discovered he was on the wrong flight path.

It's difficult to resist capturing images of contrail patterns!

Especially the more colorful ones at sunset.

Local Linkage & More: Our local bloggers have been out and about, enjoying great adventures. Rich continues on his ghost town odyssey with pictures from Vulture; Tombo camped out along Wet Beaver Creek before showing up at our blogger meet-up on Sunday; Jarart spent several days haunting Lynx Lake to get a terrific close-up of a local eagle. Now to the wide world; I am on a regular mailing list from NASA which links me to wonderful pictures of places on earth as photographed from space; take a look at the remarkable Saharan dunes here, then scroll down to subscribe to the mailing list. It's great stuff. As long as we are in space, may I recommend Space Weather, which I have been checking regularly to see when and/or if the new sunspot cycle begins. And for just plain fun, spend 45 minutes with Dr. Horrible and his Sing-Along Blog; the production is by Joss Wheden, he of TV's Firefly and Buffy.

The dinosaur for all occasions

It must be a blast to be a children's librarian. Where else would one's job description include turning an everyday dinosaur into a mermaid? I forget on which occasion I found Tippy, as the saurian's name turns out to be, swathed in green, with a gorgeous blonde DO to complete the illusion. Snap, I took a picture at once. Found out that Tippy regularly changes his persona to suit the season, holiday or special program.

For instance, I stopped by the children's library on Friday as I was heading to the chamber music concert. A totally different dino -- he was, ARGHHH, a pirate. Note the details: a parrot to say "pieces of eight" and a miniature treasure chest, plus big boots, a sword and a skull and crossbones. The idea behind this costuming evolved because one of the librarians lent a family treasure -- an old sea chest -- to hold prizes for kids taking part in the month-long winter reading program. Naturally, the treasure chest said "pirates" and Tippy was outfitted accordingly.

The librarian showed me the picture (above) of Tippy meeting Santa during the Christmas season so I boldly asked if any other pictures existed. Just look at the wonderful images I got in the email that evening:

Tippy as Cupid for Valentine's Day (above) and as a goldfish (below).

Dinosaur-go-braugh for St. Pat's Day...

transformed into an Easter bunny-saur (above) and, with added ears and trunk, into an impressive elephant (below). Maybe he was promoting the book, Dumbo.

I'm curious what he'll be wearing the next time I stop by.

Prescott blogger meet-up

We did it! Despite the competition from the big football game down in Phoenix (and on local TV screens) a good group of local bloggers got together this afternoon over at Casa Sanchez to see what the people they know only from the screen really look like.

At my last count, there were slightly over 40 local folk who blog on a regular basis, whether they are writing about local news, their own interests and hobbies, or highly specialized topics such as the role of PCs in education or how to use technology (including blogging) to assist visual impairment. Most of the locals are listed over at the right hand side.

We will probably be meeting every month on the 2nd Sunday, same time (2 p.m.), same place (Casa Sanchez). It's a great crew!

Who's Who: As requested by a commenter, picture one -- As Your World Changes, Photos from Prescott, Ric & Debbie's Place, Observations, Airstream Chronicles, Foolsewoode. Picture two -- Airstream Chronicles, Foolsewoode, Tombo, Inner Eye, Dagny's Desk. Picture three -- Inner Eye, Dagny's Desk, Rowena Art. If you'd like a list of everybody who's ever signed up for a blog on Blogger, go to My Profile in the right hand column and click on Prescott. Today, there were 388 listed (and another 1 in Prescott Valley). If anybody out there can tell me how to get similar lists from the TypePad, WordPress, LiveJournal or other blogging platforms, by all means send me instructions! Furthermore:

Any and all other local bloggers are invited to meet-up with the group. Next time, Feb. 8, 2 p.m. at Casa Sanchez.

Baroque without the Bach

In case you were wondering, the portrait is J.S. Bach; it resides above the electronic piano in the front room. My LH, who played a mean partita, clipped it from a magazine, popped it into a frame and up onto the wall. So you can understand that when I received notice that this month's chamber concert at the library was all Baroque, I made sure to be there. No Bach, but very good listening, nonetheless.

The LH would have loved this beautiful harpsichord; I would have loved hearing his music.

The music included a flute/violin sonata as well as a sonatina for viola and harpsichord...

plus a Corelli sonata for cello and keyboard...

and a double concerto for two cellos and harpsichord by Vivaldi. Musicians at the event included George Friedman, Dianne Holmgren, Anne Badger, Karen Giglio, Diana Hart and Beverly Chesterby.

I couldn't help noticing the lone old-time westerner -- the only hat in the audience; he was very much into the music.

And as a coda to my musical afternoon, this enthusiastic bongo player on a bench at the Square.

Our historic VA hospital

Last night, I gave up, promising to finish this post today (Friday); now, after consulting The Google re: Whipple Barracks, I am overwhelmed with bits and pieces of historic information (something like 29,000 citations). They range from the Buffalo Soldiers once stationed in Prescott to census records to a wonderful article about Fiorello LaGuardia's father, who was bandmaster at Ft. Whipple with some great pictures. Here's where I was when I left off:

Do you chance to have a spare eighty-five hundred dollars? If so, you could become the owner of a rare old map of Ft. Whipple dating from 1883. Ft. Whipple, of course, was the original name of what is now called the Bob Stump Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, the other local hospital, located along Granite Creek just off SR 89.

Many area residents use the VA medical facilities and yet I hadn't seen the grounds of this major local institution in all the years I have lived here -- until I took the little PTA bus for the first time a couple of years ago. The bus is an important link for many aging vets who live in or around Prescott (including the homeless). For me, the bus was a platform for many of the pictures here.

The original site was called Fort Cienega, which makes sense -- it was built along what must have been a marshy area surrounding Granite Creek; the first buildings at the present location were erected in 1864 and the hospital in the 1880s. Look at a map and you'll see a curious parallelogram of land, most of which is now the Yavapai reservation; until the res was established in the 30s, that land had been part of Ft. Whipple.

Two views (above, below) of the domiciliaries. The hospital's web site explains that acute medical care consists of primary and secondary inpatient medicine and ambulatory care, which includes general medicine, ambulatory surgery, mental hygiene, and selected specialized outpatient clinics. Primary level ambulatory care and screening services are provided at the main hospital and five CBOC sites. Rehabilitative care consists of a rehabilitation medicine unit, an outpatient substance abuse treatment program, vocational rehabilitation/job training program and a very active outpatient rehabilitative therapy program. Long term care consists of a Community Living Center (CLC), a Geriatric Evaluation, and Management Program (GEM and Domiciliary). Dementia, Hospice and Respite are programs offered in the CLC. Domiciliary care is a residential rehabilitation program that provides short-term rehabilitative care and long-term maintenance for veterans who require minimal medical and mental health care. Rehabilitative Care is directed towards the development of skills necessary for return to community-based living.

A recent AzRepublic article stated that Ft. Whipple was declared obsolete in 1912, but then reactivated in 1918 to treat WW I veterans; it ceased being an Army installation in 1922.

Officer's row, as seen from the hilltop Prescott Resort -- a wonderful vantage point. These roomy Victorian houses were built around 1907, according to the Republic article which is primarily about the historic military museum, operated on the grounds jointly by the Sharlot Hall Museum and the hospital.

Here are two hilltop views, taken from a spot just off Arizona Street on a less wintry day, with thanks to my 12x zoom lens. Isn't that a bonnie location?

Reenactment Tomorrow (Saturday, 1/17/09): Living history interpreters will relive Arizona's military past. Enjoy "School of the Soldier", a time of training for those new to living history soldiering. The Fort Whipple Museum is in Building 11 on the VA campus off SR89. Enter the campus, bear left at the first stop sign. Continue a short distance to the first T intersection and turn left. The Museum is the yellow house with green trim. For further information contact Mick Woodcock at the Sharlot Hall Museum, 928-445-3122 ext. 17 (mick-at-sharlot-dot-org.) The reenactments are held monthly, so keep checking with the museum if you can't make it tomorrow.

Another Reenactor: Buffalo Soldier reenactor Sgt. Maj. Bill McCurtis will be speaking at the Phippen Museum on Saturday, January 17 at 1:00pm along with Bonnie Freeman, the widow of Buffalo Soldier artist Ken Freeman.Sgt. Maj. Bill will be speaking on the history of the Buffalo Soldiers especially the men of the 9^th U.S. Cavalry Regiment, the most decorated regiment in the history of the United States Army.This regiment was formed out of free African-Americans, many former slaves.