I was on the water by 6:30 for a solo kayak on this sparkling day.    A slight headwind (10 mph) greeted me as I headed up-river directly into the sun.  The first twenty minutes I paddled with one eye closed against the glare, the other eye keeping my track close to the left bank.  Though the wildflower peak is a few weeks past there is still quite an array of different shades and styles of yellow near the waters edge.

I’m alone on the water this morning - not even a fisherman in sight.  After some cat and mouse with some mallards, I surprise a coyote at waters edge.  He slinks through the tall grass, at times only his oversized, pointed ears showing, and turns every few steps to assess me for a few seconds before moving farther away.  After a minute he loses interest and lopes over a bank.

After our abnormally wet winter the water level is about as high as it ever gets.  Most of the driftwood perched 40 feet up the canyon walls is now afloat.  Up-river, the canyon narrows and the rocky outcrops become more regular.  Since these outcrops are never drowned, they have an amazing palette of lichens and mosses.  The trees grow close to the waters edge - mostly varieties of oak mixed with gray pines.  Many pine seedlings have sprung up - there hasn’t been a fire in this area in years and I wonder if the lack of regular burning favors pines…

Once I reach the northward bend in the river I can detect a bit of current by the swirls on the smooth surface of the water, though the lake continues on for nearly another mile before turning to tumbling river.  The water here is cloudier, as the silt from the last week of rain infiltrates the lake.  I’m sheltered from the wind here within the confines of the canyon, and soon the sunshine is hidden by the high walls.  Time to turn back.

On the way back I investigate some small coves on the south bank with streams bubbling gently into the lake - the first time I’ve seen these streams running.  I paddle through the treetops - there’s one variety of tree that survives nicely despite being submerged for a few months.

I spy a red-tailed hawk landing on an oak branch on the cliff high above the water, and then notice a large nest in the nearby pine tree.  It looks a bit messy from this angle, but I strongly suspect it belongs to the hawk.  I hope there’s a family growing there.  I’ll have to keep an eye on it - next time I’ll bring binoculars.

The return trip is sped by the tailwind, just flipping up the smallest of whitecaps, returning me to the naturalized lemon tree marking the site of the long-gone homestead at almost exactly an hour after my departure.  According to my GPS record, I’ve travelled about 3.5 miles for the hour - a good speed taking my wildlife observation moments into account.  I end the hour with a "passion for place" similar to Richard Nelson’s in The Island Within.

From a story on this week’s Weekend America:

Hot Dogs and Buns, Together at Last

For years, a dilemma has plagued hot dog lovers — what to do with the extra buns. Their prayers have been answered. Manufacturers have reached an historic truce vowing to sell hot dogs and buns in the same quantities — packs of 8. We talk to a hot dog vendor about the good news.

Strange little story - a Chicago hot-dog manufacturer exec got tired of hearing about the incompatibility between the typical number of hot dogs in a package and the typical number of buns in a package.  The meat industry likes neat packages of one pound, which is typically 8 hot dogs.  Bakers like dozens or a fraction thereof.  You either run out of dogs, or buns.  Finally the exec got fed up and started discussions with the bun makers to fix the problem.  They’re promoting a universal convention of 8-packs.  Most of the hot dogs I buy come in 10 packs, and the buns in 8 packs.

This kind of cooperation is often hailed by vendors in the IT industry, and I’m glad they didn’t have to found a consortium or promote government regulation to solve the problem.  But the core problem here is not a lack of communication between hot dog vendors and bun bakers.  It’s between those two industries and their customers.

Why is "8" the magic number?  What’s wrong with 10, or 6?  Each might have a specific consumer demand.  The problem is not enough ranges of choices.  If hot dogs are available in 6, 8, 10, or 16 packs, that seems like a good thing to me.  The only problem is if the buns are not also available in a similar range of choices.  Bun and hot dog makers should provide more variety, not less!  I predict in the future customers will be asking these same vendors why they can’t find a 10-pack of hotdogs anywhere.