Douglas E. Berry

Ah, the time we accidentally loaded the truck. . .

Sat, 31 Dec 2022 03:03:25 GMT

comments

I read this at Burning Man. Weirdness to the max!

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 23:48:28 GMT

Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a magnificently weird book.

Told almost entirely in extended flashbacks, the plot, although I hesitate to call it that, involves three men who work for a small Milanese publishing house specializing in obscure, conspiracy-themed books. As the book progresses, mostly in long expository speeches on various conspiracies involving the Knights Templar, the Rosicrucians, and eventually the Jesuits, the three main characters start using an early IBM PC (the setting for the start of the story is around 1980) to create random conspiracy theories by feeding it random bits of data.

This leads to them formulating The Plan, an attempt at reconciling all the contradictory claims and histories into a sinister, coherent whole. What starts as a fun mental exercise becomes something more, as it becomes apparent that their musings have attracted attention of the most deadly sort.

Dear Halford, I love this book. I haven't read it in decades, and it was like meeting an old friend. Eco's use of language and imagery is both richly detailed and carefully written. In an early scene, we enter an apartment, and in a few short sentences, we experience it with all our senses/ Brilliant writing. The conclusion is appropriately confusing and unresolved, which is the only way you could end this book.

Was any of it real? Was The Plan a flight of fancy or did these three men accidentally reveal an ancient secret? We don't know, and we don't care, because the book is just that good.

View all my reviews

comments

Reflections on a Burning Man - 2022.

Mon, 12 Sep 2022 02:53:46 GMT

This year was hard. After a two-year hiatus, everyone was rusty and bad at things. As kshandra said, this was the year we brought too much and forgot everything. She's not wrong. We, for example, totally failed to plan for lunch. Breakfast and dinner were covered, but I needed small things to snack on throughout the day to keep my blood sugar and energy levels up. We already have several good plans for next year.

I am both ashamed and angry at my physical failings. My low blood pressure led to constant issues with browning out when I stood. I am physically weak, and could not help out with camp duties. That will change. I'm going to see my doctor about the blood pressure issue, and I am committed to being in better shape next year so I can contribute! I'm also going to fill out volunteer forms for the departments I can do, like BMIR (the official radio station,) Box Office, or Earth Guardians.

I want to be better. I want to carry my share of the load. Everyone who knows me understands that I am determined to do my part.

But many thanks to my campmates who helped me through this hard week. Even to the point of walking me to the porta-potty bank (hereafter referred to as the "jots") and making sure I was OK. They also fed me. So, onto the breakdown!

( Friday, August 26th )

( Saturday, August 27th )

( Sunday, August 28th )

( Monday, August 29th )

( Tuesday, August 30th )

( Wednesday, August 31st )

( Thursday, September 1st )

( Friday, September 2nd )

( Saturday, September 3rd )

( Sunday, September 4th )

( Monday, September 5th - Tuesday, September 6th )

Well, that's it. I took very few pictures, as this was an amazingly hard year.

See y'all next year in the dust!

comments

Fluid Dynamics

Fri, 19 Aug 2022 19:32:51 GMT

All righty! I've weighed all the fluids that will be going in Tramp Cripwire, and it comes out to 147.28lbs/66.8kg. Our fluids weigh more than I do.

Now, all that weight is on a one-way trip. The bulk of it is beer and vodka for our camp dues. The beer alone comes in at over 75lbs! We'll be drinking the rest of it ourselves.

Here's the issue. To balance the load in the trailer and the truck, I'm going to have to move about 74lbs/33.6kg from the truck to the trailer. I do have an easy out here. We always fill our three 7-gallon water cans, and never use all of it. If we end up with a full water jug, that will be about 60lbs/27.2kg, which should be enough to even the load out, considering the truck will have less weight after we eat all our food.

I still need to weigh the boxes and the propane tank, as those are the really heavy objects to be loaded, but right now I'm happy with my load plan. The Clothing Box, my bike, and our tools go in the trailer, and everything else in the truck.

If I'm missing something here, please enlighten me.

comments

The Temple.

Wed, 17 Aug 2022 20:23:51 GMT

I, as most of you know, am not a very spiritual person. I'm a pretty vocal atheist, demand evidence for extraordinary claims, and having been raised on Star Trek and Carl Sagan, look for logical, scientific explanations for things.

Aside from my well-known superstitions surrounding baseball, there is one other place and time where I allow the barriers between me and the potential of a spirit world to drop. The burning of the Temple on the final night of Burning Man.

The Temple is always a work of art, and it is a place of remembrance of those who have left us in the past year. People write on the bare wood, staple pictures and farewells to the structure, and until the Pyramid Lake Paiute asked us to stop, people would even leave cremains in the Temple.

It has become a center of quiet reflection, or meditation, even if you just wander around reading the memorials, and looking at the gifts left behind, which range from the cryptic to the heartbreaking. I'll never forget the one I saw in 2017, I think. It was a photo of two US Marines in full battle rattle in Afghanistan. It was pinned to the wall by two Lance Corporal rank pins. Written next to the photo was the name of the deceased and "Goddamnit, we made it HOME! WHY??? The scary thing is I think I know the answer."

I must have stared at this for ten minutes with made plans to find this Marine scream with him, cry with him, get drunk with him, anything to share his pain.

That's the Temple. It is an emotional focus. And on the night after the Man burns, which is a raucous party, the temple burns. About 30-40,000 people turn out for that. And we sit in utter, reverent, silence as all those memories and memorials burn.

One year, I had to put up a memorial for Loren Wiseman, Traveller editor, writer, and guru. The man who gave me the contract for Ground Forces. As we watched the temple burn, I noticed one spark shooting straight up out of the inferno. "Look," I said with tears in my eyes, "there goes Loren, burning for the 100 diameter limit."

Sadly, we have two names to post this year, one of my aunts and a good friend who died suddenly of Covid. When the Temple burns, it will bring closure.

comments

Everybody, I has a BIIIIG announcement!

Fri, 29 Jul 2022 01:56:19 GMT

Tramp Cripwire has been repaired and is ready for pick-up!

[APPLAUSE]

We're going over Monday. There will be pictures! The next step is getting the wheels aligned, and we have a place in mind for that. This has been THE hurdle, mentally, emotionally, and financially, that we have been needing to get past.

Now, I can look at prep without wondering where I'm going to sleep, and start planning out loads. This weekend we're hitting BevMo for the liquid portions of our camp dues. We just need to keep going over what needs to go in That Box, needs to go in the Kitchen or Shade boxes, or needs to be stored in the trailer's cubbies or just loose in the truck bed for easier access.

WELCOME BACK FROM THE DEAD, TRAMPY!!!

comments

The Staff Officer strikes again!

Mon, 20 Jun 2022 00:01:46 GMT

kshandra and I were doing a little clearing out of stuff in the kitchen and came across a Box of MYSTERY on a hard-to-reach shelf. Being the Designated Tall Person, I got it down. It was filled with survival food from Patriot Pantry. Which is the best crazy prepper site ever.

We went through them and decided that we could use most of them for Burning Man. A couple are going up on the local Buy Nothing group. This simplifies the food planning aspect for both our dinners as well as for the camp Thanksgiving. The others? Well, I bought that travel pack of hot sauce for a reason.

We will still be doing some stuff on the food saver and freezing it because it's always good to have options. One thing we will bring is a can of beanless chili to add to the Mac and Cheese because chili mac is good Army food. Campmates are welcome to join us for that culinary delight.

So as of right now, we are pretty well-sorted for the food plan. We have breakfast stuff, dinner stuff, and even a few desserts. Lunch will be leftovers, if we eat lunch, because who wants to eat midday at Burning Man?

Now we're just waiting to hear about our camp dues and the resolution of the trailer mess.

comments

A very busy Saturday

Sat, 21 May 2022 22:18:10 GMT

We're having a busy day! We took my long-neglected bike down to The Off Ramp for new tires and dry lube. did the weekly shopping while waiting for that to get done, and after a short break, we're heading down to do some stuff with the totaled trailer and then to REI for a little prep shopping.
Which, annoyingly, will include pricing an emergency backup tent if this drama with the insurance company drags on much longer.

(A little bit later. . .)

After a rest, we rolled all the way down to the place where we store our trailer. It's not overly convenient, but the price is decent. We had two goals, Use our trailer dolly to place the trailer in the slot (neither of us is very good at backing the trailer up, something we *will* work on when we get the new one) and putting the useless fucking license plate on.

Turns out the license plate didn't come with nuts, so we'll be hitting Home Depot for those. Also, I was a bit concerned about the play in the mounting, so will be adjusting that next week when we go down to try this again. We did move the trailer into position, and as a bonus, figured out how the read stabilizer legs work. Go us.

From there we rewarded ourselves with a trip to REI. We picked up some camp food, mainly breakfast stuff because easy in the morning is best, I grabbed a nice set of small hot sauce bottles and a dessert. We're going to save that for last night.

We also picked up so camp lighting solutions, two rolls of Nunn tablets, and a water bottle that will fit in my bike's water holder. We briefly looked at shoes, as the New Balance shoes I wear for work are definitely showing their age, but didn't find anything good.

The one thing we failed to do was go to Bank of America and close our account. We have cut every autopay and reset every account to work off the Star One Credit Union account. Today was the day we were going to go in, get the last amount out, and end that chapter of our lives. But we forgot.

We even identified the fail point. We were fully expecting to drop off my bike and be told: "it will be ready Tuesday" or whatever. Instead, they had an open shop and were able to get to it right away. Our carefully laid plans in shambles, both of us forgot the bank and instead opted for the weekly shopping.

It's all good, we'll go over there next weekend. Along with finally seeing Dr. Strange.

comments

By day, I was a Crossing Guard, but by night, I was a. . . STAFF OFFICER!

Sat, 14 May 2022 21:29:37 GMT

I really missed my calling as a CMF 51 Logistics geek.

Today we attacked Burning Man planning head-on. We had a pile of stuff here at home, and I wanted a good inventory of what was here and in the storage unit. If we know what we have, we know what we need. My plan was to reduce the pile at home to things that will be needed immediately when we reach the Playa. These can be stored loose in the truck or in the trailer. Triaging things got detailed, down to the expiration dates of medications in our first aid kits. We're going to need refills.

For example, I have a Camelback hydration backpack. I usually keep things like my goggles and spare dust masks in there, along with a small first aid kit, a MOOP bag, and the like. I'm not going to need most of that until we've set up camp and I'm ready to explore. I will need a dust mask and goggles as soon as we get to Gate Road. So the Camelback goes into a box, and one mask and my goggles will be in the truck cab. My thought was immediate needs at hand, everything else packed.

With a small box of things to be boxed, we headed over to the storage unit, played Jenga with everything in there, and started an inventory. The box holding the shade structure was the easiest, as the bag for the structure takes up almost the entire box. It was then that I realized we really only had one other box (these are the big black storage boxes with yellow lids that have become ubiquitous over the last several years) and it was only partially filled. We did the inventory, pulling all the cookware for a thorough cleaning at home, and checked the expiration date on our camp food (we'll be eating Biscuits and Gravy through 2047), before carefully repacking to maximize space.

So we are only going to have two storage boxes going out. This makes loading Darby much easier, as I can put all the beer for camp dues and our sodas and the like in the trailer for balance. Coming home, as we inevitably have at least one filled 7-gallon water jug still filled, we can use that for weight. Since we are also porting out our garbage and normally get the camp's recycling, I could also move the lighter storage box there as well.

There are plenty of other things to consider in my load plan, three of the water jugs plus a 5-gallon Igloo cooler, a folding table, our camp kitchen, camp chairs, a 5-gallon gasoline jerry can, three collapsable bins, and our clothes for both the event and the drive home. But those are easier to fit in around the edges.

Now we just need the trailer drama to end.

Like I said, Infantry by training, S-4 officer at heart. Many thanks to kshandra for writing down the inventory in a legible hand and for a lot of the heavy lifting.

P.S. I really need to wear suspenders with these jeans.

comments

The last bit of the Beowulf is gone.

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 21:17:55 GMT

We dropped off the Sun Box containing the old Harbor Freight solar panels at the home of the people who bought the trailer. What a relief.

Those things generated 45 watts and were outdated almost the instant we bought them. They were a pain to set up and tear down on Playa. The Sun Box was heavy and just another thing we had to load and unload. Now that's gone.

The Far Trailer Empress Marava has 100w panels installed, with an actual control panel so we can monitor things like efficiency and battery temperature. One less thing on the camp to-do list. More importantly, one less thing to load!

More importantly, as kshandra took a book from their little free library when we were there yesterday, I added one before we left today.

comments

Breaking the Beowulf, Part 3

Sat, 22 Jan 2022 21:25:33 GMT

And just like that, it's gone.

After not getting much response from local Burner groups, kshandra bit the bullet and put the Beowulf up on Facebook Marketplace. Along with the usual cast of idiots, we got three serious inquiries and arranged to meet with them in a supermarket parking lot.

We got there in plenty of time, and the first potential buyer messages they were walking over. Wait, what? You're buying a thousand-pound trailer. We're ready to hand it over right now. But our worries disappeared when we saw that the buyers were in fact a family with three very small kids. They loved the trailer were agreed to the price. Their issue was that while their SUV had a hitch receiver, they hadn't bought a ball hitch yet. We were more than happy to deliver the trailer.

After showing how the various hitch pieces worked, money was exchanged, and we headed to AAA for the title exchange. It was all easy as hell. The Beowulf is not ours anymore and is off our insurance. As a bonus, we noticed that this same shopping center where AAA was located also was home to an Outdoor Supply Hardware store! Successor to the much-missed Orchard Supply, we walked and remarked that it smelled like an OSH. We wandered around, failed again to get a spare key made for Darby, found a fire extinguisher for the new trailer, and headed home.

Tomorrow we need to run back down to the sellers and drop off the solar panels we forgot to get out of storage. Then prep for the new trailer begins in earnest.

comments

Looking forward with slightly improved vision. Here comes 2022!

Thu, 30 Dec 2021 20:22:59 GMT

Considering my original long-term survival goal was living to see 2000, I take every new year as a win.

So, what's coming up for me and Offhand Manor in 2022? Well, my health is going to dominate things for at least the next few months. We need to find out the cause of the inflammation seen in my eyes and now in a lymph chain in my chest. I had a head MRI yesterday, and still need to schedule a PET scan and a lumbar punch. Ow. Plus there's now a cataract in my right eye that needs to be dealt with. There are plenty of appointments coming up. Just to make things more fun, my hemo-oncologist retired and I'll be dumping this all on a new doctor.

Fun times, folks.

Alongside that, I'm going to keep working on physical and mental health. My job makes getting my daily steps in easy, but I really need to get the TRX bands out at least three times a week and work on getting back to the gym when possible. Mentally, I was able to recognize that I was setting myself up for failure in a situation and back out of it, which was a win, but I need to set aside time for mindfulness. 30 minutes a day of quiet meditation really helps center me.

One big thing coming up is our July roadtrip to Tonopah, Nevada for Westercon 74. kshandra has really wanted to get me away from the warzone our neighborhood becomes over July 4th, and besides the con, there are some cool things to see in Tonopah. Like the The World-Famous Clown Motel !

We won't be staying there. But we will kill the camera batteries in the 19th-century cemetery across the street. It'll be a fun trip!

What's really cool is Burning Man is coming back! After a two-year hiatus, we're going back to the desolate, dusty, sun-blasted Playa we love. Planning is already in progress, as I was born to be a staff officer. Speaking of which. . .

The Free Trailer Beowulf is dead, long live the Far Trailer Marava! After five years, the homemade kludginess of the Beowulf is showing. Rather than fight a long battle to keep it road-worthy; which we really lack the skills, tools, and funds to do right; we've decided to take the plunge and buy a real trailer.

We're getting an Outbound Extreme Standard Model. Scroll down a little to see the model. Ours is the base white with black trim. We did go for a few necessary options (which you can see on the Order page.)

Exterior Options
100 Watt Solar Panel, 30-Amp LCD Display Solar Charge Controller with Battery Temperature Sensor.
15" Spare Trailer Tire
Front Cargo Rack
Front Diamond Plate
Rear Support Jacks

Interior Options
Roof Fan, 3 Speed
Memory Foam Mattress
Front Storage Cubbies
Electric Package (basically a surge protector power strip with USB ports mounted inside the trailer.)

We'll need to pick up a new marine battery, battery box, trailer lock, and a few other things. If you're in Northern California and want a trailer that is in decent shape but needs some work, contact me or Kirsten for details. We'll throw in the solar power panels we've been using.

Also, I am determined to spend the time to make Sideways Solutions work. So I have a schedule to make sure that when NaNoWriMo kicks off on November 1st, I will have everything ready to roll. The total word count goal for the 1st draft is 90,000 words. Expect to see a lot of drabbles and ficlets in this space, and folks, I need your feedback. Not just "that's cool!" but tell me what works, and where I'm weak. I'm a former infantryman, I can take harsh criticism!

The only other big thing on the schedule for the year is we have vouchers for a couple of San Francisco Giants' games, and in September, the long-delayed Rammstein show in LA may finally happen. Crossed fingers.

Hell, crossing my fingers for all of this! Happy New Year!

comments

Radical Ritual, my review

Fri, 28 Aug 2020 21:08:39 GMT

Radical Ritual: How Burning Man Changed the World by Neil Shister

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was supposed to be the book I took to Burning Man this year, but, well. . .

What we have here is a fascinating account not of how Burning Man started and grew; that's a tale that has been told many times. Instead, it's about how the vision for what Burning Man could be changed from the early days of Baker Beach, the Cacophony Society, and Zone Trip 4 through the disaster of the 1996 Burn to today.

We meet the Funders and the people who came in at different times and see how the event has come to affect art, civic planning, even disaster relief, and renewable energy strategies. It is told in a very personable way by Mr. Shister, who merrily jumps around in space and time to weave the tapestry that is not just what happens in Black Rock City, but what happens at regional events around the world and in meeting rooms and conferences.

The book ends with Larry Harvey's death and his memorial service. While Larry may have started this flaming ball rolling, it has grown to be a force that is changing the world.

Highly recommended for any Burner, plus anyone interested in how social trends are shaped.

View all my reviews

comments

Cloak of Burning Man

Thu, 20 Aug 2020 03:25:39 GMT

In the March 1972 issue of Analog Science Fiction--Science Fact, Larry Niven had a short story, Cloak of Anarchy, part of his sprawling, thousand-year history of Known Space. I read the story as a kid, then came back to it several times as I appreciated more and more of its meaning.

The story itself centers on an Anarchy Park, a place where almost anything goes. The ever-present copseyes - floating observers that pack a powerful stunner - keep the peace. In theory, anything goes in an anarchy park. You can demonstrate, create art, tear down art, sing, dance, do whatever you want to so long as you don't cross the line into causing harm to another person or the park itself. This works fine until one of the characters in the story figures out how to disable to copseyes.

What happened next is a lesson in human nature as seen by Larry Niven. Disabling the copseyes also had the effect of locking the gates to the park. Everyone is trapped inside. Within hours, power structures form. A group of jocks seizes control of the only water supply. Other groups huddle together for safety or warmth. The story ends with the copseyes being restored and everyone leaving under their watchful gaze.

Like many of Niven's stories, the lesson is ham-handed and brutal "society good, anarchy bad." In general, I agree. But I'm currently read a book, Radical Ritual: How Burning Man Changed the World
by Neil Shister, that makes me think of that story and how it relates to Burning Man.

If you've never been, Burning Man is a place of creation. You, no matter how small, are part of the creation. Some people bring huge artworks, some bring mutant vehicles, some -like your humble narrator - bring stories to tell. Buty we all take part. There is also an amazing amount of pure liberty. Want to walk around naked but for an elaborate brass crown? Go for it. Juggling while reciting Greek poetry? I'd love to see it. Teach a class on cuneiform and let everyone make their own prayer? I'm still pissed I missed that.

But just underneath the surface, churning away, are the copseyes of Burning Man. The Black Rock Rangers, the various police agencies, and the social contract we all agree to without words when entering. Because what strikes me about Burning Man when compared to the Anarchy Parks of Niven's vision is that society forms without compulsion.

We don't need an absence of authority to form societies. We had that happen in 1996. That was the beginning of the rules that created a framework for radical self-expression. Ordinances were put in place to create more safe zones, places where the noise wasn't incessant, rules for mutant vehicles were established and evolved.

But what surprised the organizers was the growth of camps and villages. Camps are easy. Groups would band together to do something; support a mutant vehicle, run a bar, host live music, whatever. These groups would stay in contact all through the year, making plans and assigning jobs. Their growth really, in my opinion, made Burning Man a society. Camps then formed into villages, camps that worked together to make sure that Burners got the maximum interaction with their competent camps.

The organization had nearly nothing to do with this until it became a reality.

While admittedly the Anarchy Park in Cloak of Anarachy was designed for day visits, and Burning Man is a week in an unforgiving desert that will kill you, you can see where Niven almost predicted it.

If only we could get Larry out there.

comments

Bzzzzzzz...

Sun, 09 Feb 2020 01:10:21 GMT

So, I have tried something new. Since finding Mt. Dew Throwback is becoming nearly impossible, I turned to amazon. Figuring I'd order a ridiculous amount and build a fort. Instead, my searching led me to Mt. Dew's Game Fuel.

I've no issue with the idea of energy drinks. It's just that for me they've always been nigh-undrinkable due to the flavor. Seriously, I don't know how people drink stuff like Red Bull unless it's an acquired taste along with the addiction to caffeine.

But this promised the original Mt. Dew taste. Intrigued, I ordered a case. I had one the other morning when I really needed to jump-start myself for work. It tasted like Dew with a bit of that energy drink after taste. Pretty good, all in all.

But did it work? I wasn't turned into a hyper-aware twitch monster, but I did notice an increase in my energy level and had a really good shift. Also, no crash. Although that could be explained by my eating a full breakfast about two hours after drinking.

So yeah, a good thing. A case will be coming to the desert with me.

comments

Free Trailer Beowulf Report

Sun, 05 Jan 2020 00:31:34 GMT

We went down to check on the Free Trailer Beowulf today, and I can report that all is well. The extremely large tarp has kept the rain out, so the interior is mercifully dry. We hung a dehumidifier thing to make sure it stays that way.

We have two projects that need to be done before Burning Man. Installing a new, better door, and tracing an intermittent electrical problem.

We'll head back over in a few weeks to change out the dehumidifier, check tire pressure and inflate if necessary, and hopefully, chuck all the bedding stuff in sealed bags into the back.

Because it's never to early to start packing.

comments

2019: Look back myopically, look ahead with 20/20 vision

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 02:34:59 GMT

Well, I've made it through another year. Continuing to defy the medical odds, and actually thriving somewhat. 2019 was a year of continued recovery, pushing myself, and doing things that I thought I would never be able to do.

Let's review, shall we?

( Health )

( Work )

( The Arts )

( Baseball )

( Creative Work )

( Burning Man )

So, that's 2019. I know I missed things, but the summation of the year is this: I didn't die, and had fun living.

comments

One Burning Man ends, and another begins. It is the circle of dust.

Sun, 08 Sep 2019 00:30:35 GMT

A busy day at Offhand Manor. We had several post-burn tasks to attend to. Because this damn thing never really ends.

First, we took all all the recycling to our local place. We're allowed to take all the cans from Rosie's Bar (the day bar we run as part of M*A*S*H 4207) home. That and our on recycling from both our personal consumption during Burning Man and the stuff that was at home got us $51.55. Not a bad payoff.

Next, we stopped in at Home Depot for a third 55-gallon storage box. These are the longer version of the now-ubiquitous black boxes with the yellow lid. We found that they are the perfect size to store horizontally in Darby's bed. Last year, we had two, dubbed the Sun and Moon boxes (holding our solar panel gear and our shade structure, respectively.) The third is the Earth box, holding not only all the kitchen gear but pretty much all our miscellaneous gear with room to spare.

This is going to make loading/unloading so much easier in terms of load planning and finding things. The Sun and Moon boxes will be practically empty after camp is set up, and can be used to set a borer for our space or stored under the trailer. The Earth box will have everything else. We also looked at an adjustable height folding table as a new place for our cooler. I like the idea as it would both isolate the cooler from the ground and make the task of draining meltwater into our garden watering can much easier.

As an aside, we can't just dump water on the playa. Clean water, like cooler melt, can be disposed of by sprinkling it over a large area. Being able to do this daily will again make our packing process that much easier. Graywater is another issue, and we mat make our own evaporator to deal with the liter or so of graywater we generate daily.

After escaping Home Deport, we went to kshandra's office/warehouse where our gear is stored in the offseason. There we two goals here: move items into their appropriate spaces and build an accurate inventory of what we had and where it was. Several items were coming home for cleaning, for example, or would be stored at home until it was time for loading. Having an accurate inventory makes life so much easier in the long run. Next spring, when we're starting to get ready, we can look at the inventory and know what we have already.

The work went we quickly, with a few breaks of course. I was really pleased that we could fit the bag containing our rolled-up camp table into the Earth box. My theory is the fewer things out in the open on the truck, the fewer things to worry about losing to a pothole bump or a thief.

Then Darby got a much-needed bath at Rotten Robbies. They recently installed a LaserWash 360 system and it works great. I was impressed, even the headache rack came out clean. There is still a mountain of mud in the truck bed, but I'll deal with that. Also, Darby's passenger seems to have a seal leak.

Finally, we had to go shopping. We cleaned out a lot of old food before we left, and the larder was rather bare. I avoid most of the impulse buys, and can I say I'll be happy when the IPA fad goes away?

One big piece of shocking news. We may be selling the Free Trailer Beowulf. We've decided that a purpose-built toy hauler or work trailer, with both a side door and a rear ramp would probably be better for our needs going forward. So if anyone is interested in a small teardrop trailer, or knows a potential customer, let us know!

We did this all today because tomorrow night we're seeing Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony tear down the Chase Center right after they finished building it.

comments

T minus four days

Sun, 18 Aug 2019 22:37:17 GMT

Alright, almost all the stuff that needs to go in the Free Trailer Beowulf is there (as always, we missed one bag and there's always last minute stuff to deal with.)

We have a pretty complete bag of things that will be in the cab with us on the drive up. Snacks, things we'll need right as we start to set up, things like that.

Finally, all the material that needs to be loaded into Darby are ready and waiting and Kirsten's warehouse. The current plan is to load Darby Thursday afternoon after I finish my shift, park it loaded, then get an early start Friday morning to pick up the trailer and head out!

Still to be loaded, the telescope we were loaned, my Yugoslavian greatcoat, all the perishables, and the last round of "oh, shit, we need this" stuff.

comments

The Cold (Beer) Equations

Sat, 17 Aug 2019 01:49:30 GMT

OK, a 30 can case of beer masses about 25 lbs. We have four cases, so that gives us roughly 100 lbs of beer to transport.

12 packs mass roughly 10 lbs. We have three of those. Another 30 lbs.

One 20 pack of Diet Dr. Pepper, about 16.3 lbs.

The beer will go in the Free Trailer Beowulf. The rest of the soda will go into a storage box.

Then there's the water. Luckily, they are empty until Fernley, because our three 7 gallon containers will weigh around 189 lbs! My plan is to try to fit them in the trailer or find space in the truck bed. I just worried about putting too much weight in Beowulf forward of the axle.

Burning Man sucks. The logistics, however, make for fun calculations.

I should have been a staff officer.

comments

More staff work for Burning Man!

Sun, 04 Aug 2019 00:23:56 GMT

We are getting closer!

Went out and did some needed shopping for both the Burn and for life. First stop was REI, where the plan was to buy hiking socks, but Kirsten realized we could get a much better deal at Steven's Creek Surplus. Then to Five Guys for lunch (yum!) and BevMo. We have finished purchasing the fluid portions of our camp dues. Also, I found that Pabst makes a nonalcoholic beer. This will help on the days I'm hanging around camp doing my carnival barker/storyteller routine, as Rosie's Bar serves PBR. My cans won't be a perfect match, but they'll at least fit with the theme.

On to the Omaha Steak store. Good thing we decided to eat first, or we would have bought a cow in pieces.What we were after their tender steak bites, and grabbed one of each flavor: Original, Teryaki, and Peppercorn. I'm thinking these will be good noms in line. But seriously, we could have broken the bank there. Back in the car, and after a fueling stop, we hit Harbor Freight. We had coupons for a single-piece tarp to cover the Free Trailer Beowulf when it is in storage and for a strong stepstool to replace the plastic one currently in use. I had nightmares about that stool breaking and one of us bleeding out on Playa. Also grabbed a grommet set and a couple of ball stretch cord sets, as Kiri has plans for securing our shade structure.

Added to the deal, two free LED lights! Always useful. But we had one more . . . no, two . . . make that three stops. The aforementioned surplus store where I found a six-pack of good walking socks (which will be good for both Burning Man and my job) and a new t-shirt and tank top, both with ARMY on them. This both fits the theme of the camp, and I can wear them for gym visits.

Getting tired now, but we circled around to the big & tall store, because Kiri needs more tank tops herself, and then to pick up a hanging shoe box rack thing Kiri found on a local sharing board.

At REI I also picked up a new insulated water bottle for work and a little 65mlbottle of Habanero sauce. Because all food is edible with enough heat!

So, what's left? There's still some more food to be precooked and vacuum-sealed, We need to get everything going into the trailer into the trailer, and I still need to get my greatcoat cleaned. One more bit of news, a headache rack has been ordered for Darby.

The Man burns in 28 days.

comments

All. The. Laundry. With bonus insurance idiocy.

Sat, 20 Jul 2019 22:33:56 GMT

Burning Man preparations continue apace. Today we did a task that should have been done last September. We washed the sleeping bags and the bed pillows. In the Free Trader Beowulf, we use the sleeping bags as both a base and a cover for cold nights. However, given how mild that nights have been the past few years, we're picking up a set of sheets at Big Lots and binging lighter blankets. But the sleeping bags and pillows needed to be clean, because this will be the year temperatures drop below freezing at night.

Since we were going to Oasis to use the big load machines anyway, kshandra decided to attack a pile of laundry that had been accumulating in a corner. Along with every else, we pretty much filled Darby. We made two quick stops, the bank for $80 in quarters (!) and Kirsten ran in into Safeway for more laundry pods and some lunch.

As an aside, I'm loving Liquid Metal on SiriusXM. A great mix of classic metal and newer bands.

We get to Oasis, haul all our crap in, and start the action. Long story short, everything for the Playa is done and bagged and will be tossed in the Beowulf next time we go down to fiddle, and Kirsten is taking a nap before tackling her mountain of clean clothes. She has promised to triage every item in an effort to reduce clutter.

Now, the insurance morons. Last January I started a Medicare Advantage plan, and my coverage was sold to some company I've never heard from. My insurance is still through Anthem Blue Cross, but these people keep sending me mail. Which, recently, has been a series of denied claims going back long before I got my new insurance.

I'm mean, the surgery I had in 2015. Pretty much every blood draw I had as part of my Dilantin checks. All of which was covered by MediCal! Needless to say, I shall be calling them Monday morning.

comments

This is why we've been together for over twenty years...

Sun, 15 Dec 2013 17:37:46 GMT

Pending medical approval, I'm planning on going to Burning Man this year. This was a chat Kiri and I had the other day on the subject:

Douglas Berry: Check. Oh, I have a plan.

Kirsten Berry: Does it involve hats?

Douglas Berry: Not unless you want to get me this:http://www.after5catalog.com/images/products/172-06601P3.jpg

Kirsten Berry: No. Not even for the desert.

Douglas Berry: What if I wore it ironically as a commentary on American consumerism?

Kirsten Berry: Don't think it'd fly, sorry. Now, a beerdolier like John Jensen has...

Douglas Berry: STOP JUDGING MY ART!!!

Kirsten Berry: Dude, we're building fucking BLEACHERS for the DMV this year specifically to heckle.

Douglas Berry: /me gets big anime eyes at the thought.

I have found my true calling.

Kirsten Berry: With scorecards that say things like pi, or sqrt -1.

Douglas Berry: Please tell me there will be a gong, and I get the Jamie Farr seat.

Kirsten Berry: OOH! We can totally get a gong.

comments

We did an art film. I feel so hip!

Fri, 31 May 2013 01:00:14 GMT

Last night, the Purple Koosh (to use Kiri's Playa Name) and I attended a pre-release screening of Spark: A Burning Man Story. An amazing documentary that manages to fit in the history, ethos, and personality of the Burn along with meeting the people who started it and continue to make it happen.

I've joked that I've been experiencing Burning Man by degrees. I help Kiri pack and unpack, I've been to the Playa, eaten at Bruno's, seen mutant vehicles up close, experienced Exodus (or at least the hundreds of dusty people in my hotel part). When Kiri is at the Burn, I watch the live feed as much as possible. But that's not getting it.

This film helped me get it a little better. Still not sure about going (mainly for health reasons, Playa dust would probably kill me dead) but I have a better grasp on the why of it now.

Film comes out in wide release this August. Take the time to see it.

comments