dinner tonight was at the "Can't Fail Cafe" in Emeryville. i had a serving of the hot wings and some fish tacos for dinner. yummy stuff. also, i had to order the Peet's coffee...i think i had five cups of this stuff :-) located just a block away from where i live, i think i've found a new place to hang out.

this marks a 30 hour, sleep deprivation test for me... the last time i had almost no sleep for more than 30+ hours was in Australia :-D . today was not as fun. went to work at 9pm 2 nights ago, got off at 630am the next morning(yesterday), then drove to fullerton(south of los angeles) and back to get back in time for the new day---wednesday....jeez, i think i need some sleep...

this is me with my coffee for my after-dinner walk in the woods, around the reservoir. the dam stretches around the western part of the reservoir and leads to more campgrounds. a lot of wildlife found in the mountains: deer and mountainlions---i really wanted to see a bear though.

i will definitely go back up to the mountains for some vacation time next year.

picture of wishon reservoir september 2005. you can see by the waterline that there is significant room for more water in this lake. the elevation is 6000 feet above sea level but i went cycling aroudn the area and found signs for campgrounds labeled as 7000 feet. cycling around there was fun, i'm definitely looking forward to going back.

this is a shot of how it looks inside the helms powerhouse site. basically, it's a cave cut into the side of a granite mountain between two lakes of different elevations from sea level. the difference in water level is used to generate electricity by turbines that harness the power of the flowing water through the mountain. the blurry guy is just a reference of how deep into the mountain we have to go. behind the blurry guy are lights leading up to the entrance of the cave via the tunnel with a paved road. it was kinda cool to work there for two weeks, getting my "miner" experience, lol.

me with mary and julie, pam taking the picture.

left to right are pam, mary and julie. these ladies are the best hosts in the world. i stayed at the pg&e dorms up in wishon reservoir to work in the helms power house site and these ladies were the most accomodating people in the world, ready to greet you with a good morning and a smile. oh, did i mention that the food was superb ;-)

this is the view taken from the side of the road from the wishon reservoir dam. beyond the sand on the bottom of the screen is the white line of the side of the road and forward of it is the cliff to the bottom of the valley where there are more campsites.