MW - 90 45 45
DG - 89 44 45
DH - 88 48 40
Saturday, October 27, 2007
19th Hole
MW - 90 45 45
DG - 89 44 45
DH - 88 48 40
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
"Lincoln Park needs a mower, not more study"
Story in yesterday's Chron, not sure what happened at the meeting.
Lincoln Park needs a mower, not more study
Dan De Vries, Eden Anderson,Richard Harris
Tuesday, October 16, 2007San Francisco is in danger of losing one of its landmark open spaces - the Lincoln Park Golf Course, which surrounds the Palace of the Legion of Honor and overlooks the Golden Gate - to bureaucratic and political neglect, lack of accountability and indecision.
Today, the Board of Supervisors will consider Supervisor Jake McGoldrick's proposed 18-month task force to study city golf operations. But why so long? Lincoln Park is fragile, deteriorating, and an 18-month task force threatens it with literally being studied to death.
City golf operations have been studied and re-studied for years, and they always arrive at the same conclusion: San Francisco has failed to properly maintain its public golf courses, which need immediate improved care, competent management and infrastructure reinvestment.
Lincoln Park, the city's oldest and most scenic golf course, is Exhibit "A" for the need to change the public golf course maintenance status quo. Lincoln's fairways are a patchwork of gopher mounds, leaky-sprinkler-fed bogs, and brown patches where the water has been shut off to stop leaks. In June 2007, Lincoln's only fairway mower broke. Instead of repairing or replacing it, the Recreation & Park Department mowed the fairways infrequently all summer with a narrow, slow, trim mower, leaving grass so tall that the fairways became indistinguishable from the roughs. After rain, Lincoln's fairways become waterlogged and inhospitable both to golfers and mowers, due to poor drainage system. The quaint, 1920s clubhouse is dilapidated, its public rooms empty, food service minimal and the bathrooms dank. The pro shop and restaurant have been on a month-to-month lease for more than five years, discouraging the concessionaire from making needed repairs. It is more than coincidence that the number of annual rounds declined from 55,000 in 2002-03 to 35,000 in 2005-06, the last year for which complete figures are available. So far as we are aware, the city has no current cost estimates for the needed infrastructure repairs...
In short, Lincoln Park Golf Course reflects a systemwide failure of San Francisco government to competently manage its recreation and park facilities, leading to decreased public enjoyment and use. In an August 2004 recreation assessment report, prepared by a city consultant for the park and commission, the authors wrote: "... deteriorating conditions found at the recreation facilities ... were cited as a reason recreation facilities are not used ..." and "There is a lack of accountability of staff to achieve any level of measurable outcomes due to the civil service nature of jobs and the culture that exists within the system for holding people accountable." They concluded: "A commitment by the Mayor, Recreation and Park Commission, and the Board of Supervisors will be necessary for ... changing the organizational culture to hold staff accountable" and "the only way to revive the recreation system is to invest in it and put in a management and staffing structure that is accountable."
Why is this happening? Between the Recreation and Park Department, the Board of Supervisors, and the Mayor's Office, no clear statement has been made of the city's intentions at Lincoln. But one thing is perfectly clear. Lincoln is extremely valuable property, as it adjoins the exclusive Seacliff neighborhood. When neglected or abused, such property becomes target for developers. And thus civic birthrights are lost. At Lincoln, there is an ironic twist to this old story: a so-called friend of public parks, San Francisco Neighborhood Parks Council, is calling for construction of an "event center" on Lincoln's famous 17th hole. No details have been released, but an "event center" inevitably means building complexes, roads, parking facilities, congestion, noise and traffic. And all of this in the middle of the famous view of the Golden Gate now enjoyed not only by golfers, but also neighbors, strollers, schoolchildren, bikers, motorists, dog-walkers, birders, museum-goers, not to mention visitors from around the world.
Lincoln Park, however, serves as more than a greenbelt and viewshed for tourists, neighbors and museum-goers. Lincoln is a living piece of San Francisco history; it is the city's traditional home of high school and junior golf, including the San Francisco Junior Championship, one of America's oldest junior tournaments. It is home for a large number of senior golfers, and dedicated women's clubs. It offers an excellent opportunity for the First Tee's program for disadvantaged youth golf, if the program were to be offered.
The city's mistreatment of Lincoln Park poses imminent danger to this historic public property and those who love it. Lincoln cannot afford another 18 months of neglectful status quo. And so we call on the supervisors to say "no" to more study and say "yes" to saving Lincoln Park Golf Course.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Saturday, October 13, 2007
A few left for sandwiches
Abalone chez Carlson underway
Ingredients
- 1 Abalone
- Flour
- 2 eggs
- Italian style bread crumbs
- dash of dry sherry
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- olive oil
- 1 bunch of parsley
- many cloves of garlic
- 1 stick of salted butter
- 1 cup white wine
- roll of paper towels
Preparation
- Place bread crumbs and flour in separate shallow bowls.
- Blend eggs and sherry in shallow bowl.
- Prepare abalone steaks:
- Slice abalone into thin (1/8" to 1/4") steaks.
- Bread the abalone steaks.
- Coat both sides of one abalone steak with flour.
- Dip the floured abalone steak in egg mixture.
- Coat the egg dipped abalone steak with bread crumbs.
- Put aside and repeat the process from a. for the remaining steaks.
- Chill the breaded steaks for an hour or two.
- Prepare parsley/garlic topping ingredients:
- Trim parsley and chop fine.
- Crush and chop several cloves of garlic. The more the better. There should be about a 3:1 parsley to garlic ratio.
- Layer 4 or 5 paper towels on a serving dish.
Cooking Instructions
- Heat a dry frying pan on medium high heat.
- Wait until the frying pan is hot.
- Add olive oil until there is approximately 1/2 cup in the pan.
- Wait until the oil is hot.
- Add 2 to 3 abalone steaks to the hot oil.
- Cook on one side approximately 30 seconds.
- Turn abalone steaks gently.
- Cook for another 20 seconds.
- Remove abalone steaks to the serving dish.
- Cover abalone steaks with 2 or 3 paper towels.
- Repeat from step 2 for the remaining abalone steaks. Replace oil as it darkens or becomes too full of debris.
- Prepare the parsley/garlic topping:
- Heat a seperate frying pan.
- Melt one stick of salted butter.
- Add the parsley and garlic.
- After one minute, add the white wine.
- After two minutes, turn down heat and hold warm.
- When all of the abalone has been cooked and the parsley/garlic topping is ready, pickup the stack of paper towels along one edge and shake abalone out of the paper towels onto a serving dish.
- Serve abalone steaks individually topped with parsley/garlic sauce.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
It smells better here now.
Reference link here.
No we actually have not left yet, but this is what it would have looked like if we left on time.
Emergency supplies in the well buried in secret location in the swamp.
Heat lamp check
I could not stop him.
Dad insisted on bailing out the "Dream"UPDATE: What lessons do we learn from this?
LESSON 1: Water runs downhill and water is heavy.
As previously discussed here, here, here and here, not to mention previous Titanic history. If stored outdoors, cover preparation should take this property of water into consideration.
LESSON 2: There is bad weather in the U.P.
When storing the "Dream" for the winter during the dry season in August, it is important to think very hard about Upper Peninsula weather in September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April, and May. This includes typhoon-like thunderstorms dropping enormous quantities of water in very short periods of time. Sleet. Hail. High winds. Massive amounts of very heavy, wet snow that stays around for very long times. "Massive" as in 12 foot drifts. "Long time" as in snow that falls in December may very well still be there in March - 12 feet or more under the most recent March snow. Also it gets cold in the U.P. Really cold. Which means that pools of water stored in the top of boat covers turns into shards of ice, and canvas/vinyl covers turn brittle and can be easily shredded by said heavy, sharp shards of ice. Also:
If you use a boat cover as pool liner, bungee cords will likely not take the strain of the weight.
Canvas boat covers make very poor pool liners, even before the really bad weather starts.
I have drained the pool liner/boat cover. Again. I have placed a makeshift pole under the cover in the hope of preventing it from becoming a pool liner (see lesson 1 above). Again. This is not a solution. But perhaps it will suffice until a better solution is devised when the boat is stored next August.
HDW and MK got me interested
UPDATE: As promised, more pics of the shroom explosion around camp after two days of rain:
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