Good Samaritans

Who says all strangers are selfish?

A Facebook post from an old friend quoted below.  He works for the towing service.

Maria sat crying, holding her 6month-old baby in Chisholm trail park in Plano as the last light of this chilly Sunday faded. Felecia and her two young daughters driving by, noticed the weeping mother, stopped and asked what was wrong. Maria had locked her keys inside her car and with her dead cell phone being of little use and having no money, sank into despair in the gathering gloom. Felecia called the Plano police and was patched through to Signature towing seeking help for Maria. She was quoted $85.00 for the lockout service and agreed to pay. I arrived to find them all safe and warm inside Felecia's van. A few minutes later Maria's car was open and her keys located. Felecia tried to pay me but I just couldn't accept her money. After all, how frequently do you meet a true good Samaritan?

Shooting Photos through Welding Glass

I got a piece of welding glass in the mail recently to use as filter for long exposures.  It seems to be working pretty well, but does require a few adjustments.

The first issue was how to mount it in front of the lens.  I've seen blog posts where some people have taped the glass to a screw-on UV filter.  This means you can only use it for lenses of the same size as the filter.  Another option was to use a tulip lens hood reversed and hold the welding glass in place with rubber bands.  This will work for any size lens providing it has a tulip lens hood.  I had a flat lens hood that fits onto my EFS 18-55mm zoom via a bayonet mount, rather than the filter screw-in.  so I taped the glass to the lens hood with electrical tape.  It mounts and unmounts easily with a quick twist.

Report on My Android Phone

I got a Samsung Galaxy S III a little more than a week ago.  Here are some quick thoughts.

1)  The Android system is a bit clunkier that iOS, but not much.  It just needs some getting used to.  Some of the slick features of the iOS are missing from Android; things you don't miss until they don't work the same.

Not Going to Zion

Evan, Alan, Joan and I were going down to Zion today to do some day hiking and camping.  However, the Weather Service says rain is coming.  And not just showers, but 70% chance of a half inch of rain tonight and tomorrow.  So we are staying home.  I am bummed out, but I really hate camping in the rain.

Probably going to Goblin Valley and Little Wild Horse Canyon next weekend with an out-of-state visitor next weekend though.

Report on Muddy Creek

I got back from hiking the Chute of Muddy Creek last night a little after midnight.  I left on Friday afternoon with three students from my Econ 581 class at BYU: T.J. Canann, Chase Coleman, and Huang Ruidi.  Ruidi and I drove our 4WDs down.  We went via I-15, through Scipio to Salina and then along I-70 to the Temple Mountain Road turnoff at milepost 131.  We camped that night at the Hidden Splendor Airfield which was the end of our hike on Saturday.  We had several hundred people for company as the Utah Wilderness Alliance was having a "Roundup" there this weekend.

Off to Muddy Creek

I am off to hike the Chute of Muddy Creek this weekend with two of my BYU students.  This is a long day hike that Rick Evans did about 18 months ago during a lull in the water flow in early April.  The water flow was 15-20 cubic feet per second up at the gauge in Emery then.  It's running at about seven right now, so the hike shouldn't be overly deep and wet.

We'll be leaving on Friday afternoon, dropping a shuttle car at the Hidden Splendor airfield, camping at Tomsich Butte and hiking down the Chute on Saturday.  Hope to be home late Saturday evening.  Rick says it's a gorgeous hike.

Here's a preview - http://climb-utah.com/SRS/thechute.htm.