山水

Pearl S. Buck

gongchengshi — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:39:08 +0000

I just finished reading The Good Earth and am now reading the sequel Sons. It is actually a trilogy. The third book is called A house Divided. These last two books are hard to come by. The Washington State University library didn’t even have them. I ready enjoyed The Good Earth and so far Sons is just as good.

My wife read The Good Earth in high school. Turns out she knew more about late per-revolutionary China than I did at that time! Of course this was in high school and before I became the “Chinese expert” that I am.

Blown off the mountain

gongchengshi — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 06:30:01 +0000

So its not good when you start a 6 day hike and you get completely drenched on the first day. Dad and I started our 70 mile hike by hiking in 14 miles from FR 8854 in the Mount Adams Ranger District to Blue Lake. Our end hike goal was the Columbia River but we aborted after the first night. After spending a night at Blue Lake in 40 MPH winds and continuous showers, we retreated to our starting position to check the weather. The weather report didn’t give us hope that we could dry out and get back on the trail with some enjoyable weather so we called off the hike.

Instead I went with my Dad to see my dying grandfather. We expect he will pass away very soon. I spent a day working to fix up his place for him and returned home that evening.

The next day was Sunday (today). I spent the whole day as a couch potato. I woke up at 10:00 AM, watched some TV, played about 4 hours of Civilization 4, watched a boy mow my lawn, watched a couple of movies and now I am writing this. I pretty much did nothing productive in any respect what-so-ever. It was actually quite reviving. I think one more day of this would have a counter effect, but all is well because I am returning to work in the morning. Tomorrow will be a completely different day. It will be like most other days of my existence. Toiling for the so called “necessities of life”.

I’ve been reading Walden by Henry David Thoreau. To the working stiff, the book stiffles the morale. I don’t think Thoreau would approve of my daily toil. He wouldn’t approve of my day today either. He would try to convince me to throw it all away for a less complex life. Someday. I hope. Right now I get by the only way I know how.

What I Want for My Birthday

gongchengshi — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:37:28 +0000

My birthday is coming up on May 27th. My wife introduced me to wishlists when we got married. For Christmas and birthdays everyone in her family makes wishlists and they share them with people who want to get them presents. So eer since we got married I have been maintaining this wishlist. I look at it every so often and alter it as needs be. Sometimes I take off stuff but more often I add stuff. My list is pretty much everything I would like to have in the near future. Somethings like jet planes and sports cars I leave off because I might be dead before those ever materialize in my garage.

One of the wonderful things I love about fly fishing is its minimalistic nature. In order to effectively fly fish it is amazing how little equipment you actually need. And so long as you stick to one type of fly fishing, my favorite being mountain freshwater trout fishing, the total amount of equipment you could ever need is surprisingly small. So my wishlist essentially contains everything I could possibly think of using on a fly fishing expedition. Even though right now I have pretty much everything I need in order to effectively fly fish. Now I suppose I could use a few extra reels set up with different lines. Right now I fish with a double tappered floating line. It would be nice to have a reel rigged up with a sinking line on it or maybe one with a shooting line on it. But I can fish all day on my current set up. In the future I can see my self getting a 4 or 5 weight rod for realy small streams and maybe a 9 weight for when I want to try some salt water or big river salmon / stealhead fishing.

One of the things on my list was waders. I have never fished with waders. I am a pretty tough guy and ussualy just wade in felt bottom shoes and shorts. So when my wife told me that she was planning on getting me waders for my birthday it surprised both of us when I said no. I think I eventually will get some waders but but currently I can’t see myself wearing them. I haven’t put much thought into fishing with waders. I just knew it was a piece of equipment that I didn’t have so I put them on my list. Frankly, and anyone can correct me on this, they kind of scare me. What happens when you fall in and your waders fill up with water and take you down to the bottom of the river or lake you are fishing in? Do you slip out of them and watch a couple hundred dollars sink to the depths below? What if you can’t get out of them fast enough and you end up dashing your head on a rock? I also don’t like the fact that waders limit how deep you can wade. I have waded in up to my armpits before. Waders wouldn’t stand for that. So anyways, I will put more thought into the waders but for now I’ll pass.

The funny thing is I can’t think of anything I would like more than waders that is comparable in price. Maybe some motorcycle duds?

Cabin Fever

gongchengshi — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 22:09:21 +0000

Just as I am getting over fishing withdrawls Spring comes and taunts me with beautiful days, green flora, and rushing waters. I took a trip down to Boise last weekend to attend Boise Code Camp – a software developer’s conference. I take hwy 95 south to New Meadows and then take hwy 55 the rest of the way down to Boise. Hwy 95 is a one of the most scenic highways in the US. It follows the Clearwater from Lewiston to Orfino, then over a mountain to White Bird. At White Bird it meets with the Salmon river and follows it to Riggins. From Riggins it follows the little Salmon River for a ways. Then it goes up the mountain to Payette Lake in McCall Idaho. From McCall all the way to Boise it follows the Payette River. All of these rivers are famous for their incredible scenic beauty and trout, salmon, and steelhead fishing.

So here I am. I haven’t gone fishing in 8 months and I am forced to watch it all go by at 60 MPH through the window pane of my car. Today I am sitting here wondering why I have no motivation to do anything but write a blog post about this. It appears that I have “Cabin Fever”. Except it isn’t “Cabin Fever”. It is hotel and house and cubicle and car fever. When I think of a “cabin” I think of peaceful woods and a stream that is traveling at a more natural pace.