Ron's Log

Methodists Re-affirm Homophobic Church Law

By a vote of 492 to 408 the United Methodist Church General Conference has re-affirmed the right of pastors to reject gay and lesbian members. On the other hand "The conference also voted to reject 'all forms of violence or discrimination based on gender, gender identity, sexual practice or sexual orientation.'" IOW, the Methodists endorse an enlightened, tolerant atttitude, so long as those nasty sodomites worship in some other church.

Kaufmann House On The Block Tomorrow

The Kaufmann House by Neutra will be auctioned on Tuesday, May 13 by Christies. Maybe they will get the $25 million they have been talking about. The auction begins at 4 PM (Pacific Time) and will be televised live in the Annenberg Theater of the Palm Springs Art Museum for museum members. Also on the block will be works by Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon, Mark Rothko, and Roy Lichtenstein. You may have heard of them.

Photo by Modern Willa.

Safe In Bishop, California

The Inyo Register also had this article about pedestrian safety on Main Street in Bishop. The paper version included little man-on-the-street interviews and this happy couple caught my eye:

I feel sure they met in Saline Valley, but whether in the mines or the hot springs I couldn't say.

Barker Ranch To Be Excavated

When we stopped in Big Pine for breakfast on our way home from Saline Valley I picked up a copy of the weekend edition of The Inyo Register on a lark and was pretty surprised to see that the story at the top of the front page was Friday's announcement that real excavations will take place at Barker Ranch May 20 to 23 (or longer) in limited areas in an attempt to finally resolve whether more Charles Manson murder victims are buried there. For reasons unknown to me, the article is not online at the newspaper's site. Here's a search of their site for "Manson." Maybe by the time you read this the article will be online. Here's my scan of it in the meantime:

Limited dig gets go-ahead at DV ranch

Inconclusive tests leave sheriff with one option to find out 'once and for all' if bodies are buried at old Manson hideout

By Ken Koerner
Register Staff

State-of-the-art forensic technology and the uniquely-dependable noses of highly-trained search dogs have failed to provide conclusive evidence as to whether possible Manson family victims lie in undiscovered graves at a remote Death Valley ranch - leaving Inyo County Sheriff Bill Lutze with only one way to learn for sure if bodies are buried at the Barker Ranch: start digging.

In a statement released Friday, Lutze announced he will authorize "exploratory excavation" at the former Manson Family hideout later this month.

"There was no consistent response from the dogs that searched and no conclusive findings from the soil samplings tested by top experts in the field," Lutze stated. "Therefore, I believe the only way to determine once and for all whether there are bodies buried at Barker Ranch from the time of the Manson family is to proceed with limited excavation in a very few areas."

Going back to late 2007, there have been several exhaustive searches conducted at the ranch where local authorities arrested Manson and 23 of his followers in the aftermath of the brutal murders they committed in Los Angeles in 1969.

In each instance, "hot spots" were targeted by both search dogs and scientists. In the wake of an international media frenzy about the potential for finding more Manson murder victims, some 40 years after his arrest, Inyo County authorities felt there was sufficient preliminary information to conduct a formal search of the property under the watch of the Sheriff's Department.

Limited excavation will be done "beginning May 20 through about May 23," according to Lutze, at a very few sites on the ranch where cadaver dogs gave mixed indications and subsequent soil testing was inconclusive. Lutze noted that additional excavation days can be added if findings during those scheduled days warrant it.

Inyo law enforcement explained that four methods of testing were done at five sites on the ranch, with scientific practice awarding high confidence where all four techniques corroborate a possible find of human remains. This was not the case in any of the sites tested, but there was some level [of] corroboration on some sites, leading to the inconclusive findings.

The Barker Ranch is on Death Valley National Park property and will be closed to the public during the excavation. National Park Service personnel and Inyo Sheriff's Deputies will enforce the closure.

The Inyo Sheriff's Department has indicated that news access will be limited to the local newspaper (The Inyo Register) and radio/television outlet and a pool of representatives of other media "to be chosen among the media themselves." That pool will consist of one television network that will agree to share video; one radio broadcast representative and one print representative who will post coverage on a major news wire service (like the Associated Press). The Sheriff's Department advises those in the international media that it "will not consider requests to extend this pool or select its members."

I am impressed that the lead news source on this story with worldwide attention will be Bishop's The Inyo Register. I wonder if Sheriff Lutze is just fed up with those damn furinners calling his office and asking questions in their accents and everything. He stops just short of saying they can get stuffed.

Here's a brief TV news report with some historical footage of Barker Ranch. (Hey, what do they call "footage" in metric countries? "Burger Royale?")

My photos of Barker Ranch in January 2008 can be seen here.

No Gas At Olancha

Temporarily, at least, Olancha is as good as Scotty's Castle if you want to visit a spot within the Greater Death Valley megalopolis that does not sell gas. My apologies to those who relied on my directions that said the last place to get gas before heading into Saline Valley was Olancha. At the moment, Lone Pine is the closest gasoline for the southern route into the valley. (The gas stations at Big Pine are all still functioning if you choose the northern route.)

I met a man at the hot springs in Saline Valley, name of Rene from Long Beach and a member of Great Outdoors Orange County who drives to Saline Valley as often as possible and he told me that the gas station in Olancha was alive and pumping as recently as three weeks ago and that he, too, was surprised by the sudden change. The good news is that construction of a new gas station seems to be proceeding rapidly. They leveled everything on the site across from freshjerky.com and there is already a new building enclosed. No pumps yet. I imagine they are trying to squeeze in this construction of this money-making bonanza between ski season and summer tourist season.

BTW, the famous landmark gas station in Olancha shown below has been wiped out as well. The site is just blank now, waiting for another jerky dealer, maybe.

Perhaps more critical info for your successful journey in and out of Saline Valley is this: Lizard Lee recommends B. F. Goodrich all terrain tires. No better tire recommendation could possibly exist. After a total of 3 or 3½ or 4 Big-O tire failures in Saline Valley, Darrel is going out to do some tire shopping this week. Rene, OTOH, is driving on Continentals and seemed to do all right coming in the southern route.

This was my first time at the hot springs where everyone with whom I discussed route choices acknowledged that the northern route is easier and smoother compared to the southern. In the past there has seemed to be a hardcore southern route faction who will insist their route is "fine." I believe that's the word they use to describe it.

We had some virgins show up on this trip, but most were veterans. We also got to meet some very experienced other visitors who just happened to be there: Joe cigar-smoker from Texas, Dave whose 1964 Toyota Land Cruiser was packed solid with electronic equipment and had cellphone and internet service, and Rene who realizing that the routine of bringing cleaning supplies for the tubs is old hat brought crab legs, fresh salad fixings and champagne for Lizard Lee!

The weather was hot, with wind on alternating nights. Daytime highs were certainly above 100°(F), but I never looked at a thermometer. Some of the guys journeyed out of camp to explore Hunter and McElvoy Canyons, but Darrel and I stayed around camp. The only time I ventured out was to walk to the upper springs and visit a hogan along the way. The rest of the time I was either sitting in the tubs or in the shade of the palm trees.

The overall crowd was lighter than I expected, probably because it was the weekend of Mother's Day, not because it was too hot. Joe told me that he had been at the springs in late July and he was far from alone then. I might like to see how that works some time.

We had braying burros in camp one night and saw them near camp in the day time. We even got to watch a few moments of hot hot burro love. A lone coyote occasionally patroled close by, but he didn't even seem to touch the dog food. We heard no coyote packs at night.

The higher elevations were still experiencing great flower shows, so I got some flower photos on the way in and out of the valley. Around the hot springs itself, the creosote was looking very healthy, but nothing else was blooming. If you are a Flickr user you can see all my photos here, and they will include some NSFW nudity. For everybody else there's my PG-rated Ipernity set of photos. Some samples:

I Will Never Understand Ocotillos

Recently my ocotillo stick has seemed to be going into dormancy. It has been leafless for quite awhile, and although it has held onto some flowers even those were shriveling and blowing away last week. So I was really surprised to come home from Saline Valley and find it in full leaf! None of the garden wisdom passed on to me about getting ocotillos to leaf out seems to have any connection to whatever cycle this particular plant is on.

Plastic Bags Removed From Agenda

Everything on the agenda at tonight's Desert Hot Springs city council meeting was approved unanimously. How do they do it? Other political bodies in southern California must be jealous.

Even worse than unanimity, the two most interesting items on the agenda were delayed. The Chamber of Commerce quarterly report was delayed because the CEO was not present. Recently the C of C has generated some news by removing the CEO and then reinstating her. Me, I just wanted to hear her mangle her numbers again.

The other item was the plastic bag item. As anti-libertarian was it would be, it would have been very interesting for Desert Hot Springs to require local retailers to charge for those nasty plastic bags that float around us everywhere. It would not only have distinguished DHS from the other cities in Coachella Valley, but almost all other California cities. But the city councilmembers decided (unanimously, of course) to delay it for a study session. Very fair and democratic, but boring to those of us who were looking for a little excitement tonight.

In public comments Father Ted Pantels of St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Palm Desert spoke about his desire to create a non-profit urgent care center in DHS. He didn't give any specifics as to whether any of the groundwork had been done yet, and I think he was looking to the city council for guidance, which they can't give during public comments, of course, but later Councilmember Baker expressed his strong support for the idea, so I expect a connection will be made and the idea will move along. I think it's an exciting idea, and I look forward to the day when I can entrust my urgent medical needs to a Greek Orthodox sponsored clinic.

Ted Mayerhofen got up and made a weak and offensive joke suggesting that in DHS a runner is a mugger, but in Palm Desert they're running for their health. I try to fend off remarks like from ignorant people in the rest of the valley. When it's somebody local and supposedly informed I can only express my disgust and disdain.

A Randy Buxbomb (I welcome spelling corrections) got up to plug a device called the "Cool N Save" which had something to do with improving air conditoning efficiency and costs $99. He rattled off a phone number, but who had time to grab it? As soon as he started speaking my internal spam alert was triggered, and I could see that it had done the same for attorney Rubin Duran. As soon as he could get a word in Attorney Duran pointed out that public comments were not a place to do commercial promotions. Mayor Parks agreed and Mr. Buxbomb sat down (and left shortly after) mumbling something about how no other city had problems with his presentation. Anyway, Cool N Save has a website and it seems to be a misting system for central air conditioning units.

Many other positive, constructive public comments were heard.

During city councilmember reports Russell Betts promoted his Shop Local campaign.

And here's the text on the back of that image:

Contest Rules

Save Your Receipts for all your retail purchases within the City of Desert Hot Springs from May 1 to May 31, 2008. The highest combined sales total wins $100.00. Prizes for second and third place to be announced. Qualifying purchases must be from a merchant or retailer with Desert Hot Springs city limits. Wholesale purchases and institutional supply purchases do not count. All receipts must show the retailer name, date of purchase and purchase total. Date of receipt must be for purchases 5-1-08 through 5-31-08. Qualifying receipts must be turned in before June 10, 2008 at midnight. For location on where to turn in receipts and more information, call (760) 288-1613.

It's time to get started. We can fix our city.™ Keep our retail dollars at home creating jobs and supporting our local economy!

My first thought was that I had already lost 6 days of receipts, although I could probably find a few from today in my recycling bin. How do I get on the Russell Betts mailing list so I can find out immediately when these things happen?

The deal is better than it appears. There are actually going to be TWO $100 prizes, plus another $100 prize for groups. Currently the Boys and Girls Club is competing with the city government of Desert Hot Springs in the groups category. The smart winner will be someone who buys a car in DHS, I think...unless buying a house counts.

In his comments Councilmember Al Schmidt said that the Skyborne development out on western Pierson is set to start building its next phase! In one of its categories of homes (and he didn't say if that was high, low or mid-priced) the development has sold all but two homes. So it wants more. Apparently that view is selling!

Councilmember Scott Matas made a presentation on city parks which was utterly destroyed by the evil forces of Redmond. It seems that when a Powerpoint presentation is created in Vista it will not run on an XP machine. Our city has been wise enough to stick with XP, but Microsoft has seen fit in its greater wisdom to cripple the reports of Councilmember Matas. I think we should sue for no less than a billion. I believe City Manager Daniels said that he would see that the report was put up on the city's website so that we could all see it.

The final show of the evening was a presentation on a proposed development to be called "Desert Rose" on Verbena Drive near Two Bunch Palms. This is a really forward, cutting edge design, being very creative and green. It was approved, but before that there were public comments from Tom Hydrick (spelling corrections invited). He wasn't able to get to his point in his three minutes, but on his way there he made it clear that he thought no residential construction should be permitted until every previously approved development is fully built out, completely sold, and nearly fully occupied. I think that's how the Soviets used to do residential development, but it doesn't work very well in the real world.

A Change On Palm Drive

Word comes to me that this landmark/eyesore midcentury modern gas station on Palm Drive will be torn down within about two weeks. Those who object are welcome to rush in with the thousands required to restore it to other-than-eyesore quality.

Hinds Pumping Plant

The Hinds Pumping Plant is the pump on the Colorado River Aqueduct that you can easily see from I-10 east of Coachella Valley. Most people call it Hayfield, since that's the name on the exit. But in 1967 it was renamed for Julian Hinds.

This is the last pump on the aqueduct and raises the water up above 1,700 feet so it can cruise the rest of the way into the L.A. area. Here's the Google satellite view of the pumping plant.

All my photos of the Hinds plant can be found here or if you want to see these plus all my photos from the Eagle Mountain Pumping Plant, go here. Here are some samples:

You can see where the reservoir used to be. They used the reservoir only for the first few years, but it was unlined and too much water was lost into the ground.

This used to be the intake from the reservoir.

Gardner looking over the sand trap.

If all nine pumps are turned on the water overshoots the tunnel and carves away at the rocks above. This is the point where the water enters the tunnel under the Little San Bernardinos. It's all downhill from here as the water travels around Desert Hot Springs, under White Water Canyon, under I-10 and then under Mt. San Jacinto.

After passing through the sand trap.

In 1967 it was renamed from "Hayfield Pumping Plant" to "Julian Hinds Pumping Plant."

Before R2D2 and C3PO...

>