Coal was the dog I dreamed of having; he was the combination of all the Aussies I’ve had growing up.

He was the best. That dog never seemed to have a down moment. He was always happy, and always looking for trouble. I also felt like he was an extension to me, but I suspect that is me projecting my own personality on him. Lets be honest, he wasn’t an extension of me, he was better than me. He was me and more. Filled with unconditional love and never had a bad day, a temper tantrum, and a moment of self-involved narcissism. I was lucky to be with him.

I’ve always had an Australian Shepard; Max, Buddy, and then my parents both had Shasta and Happy. I loved their energy, friendliness, how expressive they seemed to be with their eyes. Even the ridiculous smile, which they always greeted me with.

They all lived to a average and predictable age (Shasta is still going strong) and I was prepared for their natural deaths. Over the years, both of my parents have gotten Aussie’s, and I’ve loved them too. I couldn’t be happier when I would visit and show them all the affection I could.

Not Coal. I’m not prepared to accept that he is gone, it still hasn’t fully processed yet. I keep looking at this pictures and even though I get upset, I still think that I’ll see him when I get home. Or when I look in the backyard, I expect to see him up to his usual shenanigans.

I didn’t get enough time with him, and I’m mad that I let him out early that morning instead of just keeping him in the house. I know that he just had it in him to escape and run around. He loved it, he loved exploring and being free, and that was noticeable when we first got him and he tried to escape the backyard.

His attempts to escape got really bad after Zoey died. It seemed that having her around helped ground him, especially when he got scared from loud noises like fireworks or gun shots. We knew we wanted to get out of Antioch for the kids, but when Coal started getting scared and trying to take off if we were not home, I knew he needed to move to a safer place as well. I just thought if he could make it until we moved, he would be happier and better off.

He just kept getting out though, and he got lucky every time. People would find him and bring him home to us, and I’d give them what ever I could to show my appreciation. He’d be happier than ever that he got to run around and then get delivered back to us, and it was concerning to me that he never came home on his own. That night I closed up where I noticed he had escaped from

I’m so sad that I didn’t get him to Santa Cruz, and that I wont get to hug him, kick the soccer ball around with him, go on walks, watch him sleep, kiss his cute snout with that black button nose. I’m going to miss him terribly.

I’ve shared an album on Picasa, please enjoy:

Coal

Goodbye Coal, I’m so sorry I couldn’t keep you safe. This is how I’ll always remember the two of us.

The City only publishes this as a PDF image, comparing the year selected, and the previous year. It also only goes back to 2005.

To help view this as a possible trend, and not just a snapshot in time, I typed up all of them in Google Docs – City of Antioch Crime Stats

It does some some improvement after a few years of growth, it is still however an order of magnitude worse than other cities in California.

According to Homesurfer.com’s Crime report, even the Sister city to Antioch, Pittsburg had 323 per 100,000 “incidents” in one year (2008). While Antioch had 869 per 100,000.

Compare that to places like Moraga which had 35 incidents per 100,000 or heck, even Oakley’s 248, which borders Antioch on the eastern side.

Here is a decent table output:

I applaud the police department for making a dent over the past two years, and even more so for publishing this data (Concord and Pittsburg did not have this information easily accessible). Even with their effort, I don’t think I’ll be hanging around to see if it pays off.

I hope that Antioch becomes a nice bedding community again. The type of place where people like my grandfather, only had to drawn their weapon once during a domestic dispute, and never had to fire it.

She was diagnosed two weeks ago, and we knew what to expect. It was terribly sad to see her in such poor shape, however, I’m glad I had two weeks to hug her, feed her delicious food, and tell her that I love her.

As sad as it is right now, as I’m still getting choked up when I see her leash hanging on the garage side door, or when I’m watching a movie on the couch and I still think I can hear her snuffling and breathing, this is the time to reflect on what a great time we had with her.

Zoey flew from Mulberry Arkansas to Oakland CA, where Michele picked her up. This was her fist good scurbbin'. She was 6 weeks old, this was June of 2005.

Relaxing in the pool on a hot August day.

Zoey was instantly a great sleeping companion. She had quickly established the couch as her favorite place to stay.

Still there...

Now I will begin the photographic presentation of why I say she was the most laid back dog EVER. This dog put up with everything:

Getting her nails painted...

Some face decoration by Caralyne...

Caralyne made her wear a shirt. It was a colder night and she needed the extra layer.

Getting buried alive...

I don't even know what this was supposed to be, but as always, Zoey played along.

Lets not put all the blame on Caralyne. Michele made her dress up too:

Probably the only time I was terrified of Zoey. She was a bee her first Halloween.

See, she's pollinating some flowers in the front yard.

Hey there Santa's little helper!

I had my own involvment in testing Zoey’s patience. I did after all, bring home a little furry bundle of fury:

He was so excited he was biting his own leg. Zoey has a great pleading look :)

She loved it though. They had a lot of fun

This was one of the last little hikes we got to go in with both of them.

Off lead, I know, but they did a great job and no one was around.

Zoey will continue to live on in our hearts and memories, and her impact on our family will not be taken for granted. As an “adult”, this was the first time in my life I’ve had to experience and become completely responsible for the spectrum of dogs life. Part of that makes it harder to accept the hardship of being a dog owner, but it also instills a greater appreciation for her life.

I’ll miss her.

Goodnight Zoey, Sweet dreams.

http://m87-blackhole.org/photos/Zoey

A chilly and misty space center :)

We did a night hike, and spent the night at the Chabot Space Center in Oakland the other week. The weather did not permit us to use the large telescopes they have there, but we did get to see the perigee-syzygy of the Moon. It was quite large and nice looking, but too bad the camera does not duplicate the same optical illusion our brains produce by making it look REALLY big:

A nice full moon...

The hike was fun, even when our guide quietly announced “I think we miss our turn…”

Yes, the hike was extended just a little bit longer. Our original guide, Celeste, had lead a small group of people on a longer hike, while those of us that were spending the night went with the Host(ess). She was not as familiar with the trails as Celeste was. I didn’t feel the need to panic, I was pretty comfortable knowing that we could at least find out way to the road, but it does make you think “How uncomfortable will this be to sleep outside all night without any protective equipment?”. I was also underdressed for the occasion, I was wearing a sweatshirt, and I was pretty cold from the start of the hike.

Thankfully, everyone has a smart phone, and with three people looking at Google Maps, we had the correct bearings. When we got back, we ate, watched a short film on what it is like to live and prepare for outer space.

As I mentioned, we did not get to view anything through the telescope, but we did get to see them with all the lights on (they said when they use them, they turn off all the lights so you eyes can adjust to low-light conditions). It was pretty darn cold and stormy, with lightening close by, it was VERY impressive :)

The "small" , 8" telescope

The small one is over a hundred years old. It is in magnificent condition and quite a site to behold.

Here is the second telescope in a separate observatory. Large, both in length and in lens size (12"?)

Here is another shot of the base, which gives you an idea of the scale of it.

After we saw all three telescopes, it was 10:30 or so, and time for bed. Everyone slept in a large meeting room, the Kepler Room, and since we had a nice hike, we were all ready for a great night of sleep.

Or not.

The room had automatic lights with a motion sensor. We slept all night with very bright lights on. I woke up around 2am to try an fiddle with the lights, which meant I had to tip toe around the father and son who slept directly under the light switches. I managed to turn off a few sets of lights, but the main ones would turn off after a while, but as soon as someone turned over, they would flip right back on. It was pretty miserable.

The next morning, we had a nice Noah’s Bagels breakfast, and then we got to run around the place by ourselves all morning.

Caralyne is doing a charcoal rubbing.

Michele posing as an Astronaut.

Caralye is already suffering from Space Madness!

Bolding going where no man has gone before... You can pee in these things right? Eww, its floating in my suite... ugh, now its in my gloves, stupid micro-gravity

Caralyne getting her space workout in

So am I

A return capsule, it was really cool. It is amazing the tight quarters and the basic computing equipment they had. I was also surprised the amount of Russian equipment on display, very cool. Go Kosmonavts!

Now THAT is a backpack. I always wondered what was in those big boxes on space suites, well, here it is. Life support systems, air exchanges, water filtration, radio communication, temperature control. Imagine hiking with THAT huh?? Actually, I've seen and put on Jenny's backpack for hiking, and its probably heavier than this :)

This one we could sit it, it was a mock up though. A good mock up, I wish Owen had been there to play around in it, he would have LOVED the switches and buttons.

Another shot

This model was to demonstrate/simulate a storm on one of the gas giant planets like Jupiter. It was a lot of work to create this vortex, my shoulder was pretty exhausted after a few minutes.

This was a COOL mechanical model of a wave that was positioned at the top of the main hallway.

Caralyne looks like she's about 15 in this picture, man, she's really growing up. Shes not 15 though, and I'm still awesome to her. I'm hi-five-ing her right now as I type this!

It was a cool trip, I’m looking forward to going back with Owen.

First off though, we didn’t charge the battery for our nice camera. We were not prepared at all this year. So, the nice family portrait was not taken by us this year, and I don’t have a copy.

Here is the other part of my lack of preparedness… I sort of forgot to tell Michele that this was the weekend we were going to my Dads. I sort of got confused, because not only did my Dad tell me MONTHS ago to mark this on my calendar, but everyone else also had told me to “mark this on your calendar” for other plans. Not only did we have Christmas in Feb, but we also had arrangements to go over my friends house, Caralyne was going to spend the night at a friends house, and my other sister, Jessica, was having her birthday party at my Mom’s place the next day.

I was completely over booked, and even my Smart Phone cannot save me from myself.

To no delay this post any further (its been in draft for two weeks :P ), here are some pictures to accentuate the good time we had:

Coda is an awesome dog. Owen is quick to point out how big he is. Seriously, that dog could swallow him whole.

I thought it was pretty funny how Coda nicely curls up on a bad he has smushed into a pancake :)

Miles and Charlie

Tessey and Caralyne

Owen handling large bagged gifts like a pro

Little Eve

This camera has a cool new mode called "Anachronistic Lense". It can show the past/future of an object :)

We had fun, and afterwards we rushed over to Chris’ house and stayed until 5am, hanging out in the freezing cold with a fire pit. What a great Christmas.

We forgot our nice camera, so all the photos were taken with either Droid, or Michele’s Droid. Mostly mine, because I had a full charge that pretty much lasted all 4 days (I charged it in the car for 30 minutes one day). Pretty nice for a smart phone, especially since I was using to take photos , movies play music off of it, I’m in love with the latest Buckethead album I recently purchased. I was able to do this by disabling the backlight, and all other things like WiFi and GPS, and profile syncing. There was no cell coverage up there, only Roaming coverage, and you can’t do much with that except make a phone call. Sheesh, who wants to do that with these things? :)

We did all they typical fun camping things, walk around the lake, swim (COLD!!), sleep in the freezing cold in layers of sleeping bags and blankets. You know, all the stuff I can stomach for about 2 days :) I help up well, and I made a bunch of jokes about “going out for a pack of smokes” and driving speedily back home :)

The kids had a lot of fun, and I posted a log of pics (and a video clip) here:
http://www.m87-blackhole.org/photos/2010-08-pinecrest/

With more comments, too labor intensive to do that much commenting and editing here in WP.

Michele and I purposefully did not make any July 4th plans, because we both silently and secretly waited for Steve and Summer to invite us down. We’d mumble back and forth “So, no fireworks in Antioch this year…”, “Yeah, maybe Steve and Summer will invite us down…”. As it got closer to July, there was a possibility that the two of them had other arrangements, and we might have to fend for ourselves!

So, last week, the phone finally rang. Whew, what a relief.

After some deliberation, we decided that it would be best if we stayed two nights in Monterey. I was very hesitant, mostly because spending the night in Monterey is very expensive. I’m so stingy that I forced us to stay in a small and crappy Super 8, rather than a decent hotel with more breathing room. Thats right family, suffer for my scrooge McDuck mentality while I swim in my vast riches!

We left Saturday morning to hit up a children’s museum. Steve and Summer met us there after lunch, which is kinda odd because they paid $7 each to go into a small children’s play area. I’ve barely accepted the responsibility of my own kids, so even when my friends are okay with being around my kids I sort of think, “But, why would you do that? They aren’t even yours, and they are kind of tedious and whiny.”

It is probably for the best that I don't know what Steve was prompting Caralyne to say...

My point is, Steve and Summer are very very nice people, nicer than me in fact, so I’m glad they still like to invite us over.

Either way, Summer found it entertaining.

As much as it kills us as parents to watch him have a go at the ladder, he is actually very safe. He naturally practices the 3-points of contact procedure. He destroys all other credibility with the rest of his wreakless behavior

I knew it! This ladder is unsafe, I call a work stoppage!

Caralyne is preparing for her debut

Whats this? Typical Owen, what a ham. Hey little hammy, get off the stage!

After some play time, Caralyne rode with Steve and Summer to Peets while Michele drove me to An Olde Town Tattoo Parlor so I could pop in and say hi to Glenn. He was in the middle of prepping someones leg for a tattoo, so after he peeled off the transfer paper, he ran out and happily greeted me with a big hug. Since Michele and Owen were waiting, I didn’t want to keep them waiting too long, so I told him we were staying for the next two nights and we’d get together on the beach tomorrow. He also invited us to the BBQ that the Tattoo parlor was having, it was their two year ‘birthday’, cake and all, but things were tightly compacted into our schedule as it was, so we didn’t make it.

We briefly went to the Dennis The Menace park, but after 10 minutes, it was blatantly apparent that Owen was over exhausted and in need of sleep. He fought hard though, it was a strange mixture of him laughing hysterically while crossing the unstable ‘Indiana Jones’ bridge, then collapsing in a fit of crying rage. Actually, that sounds a lot like my “Rose Peak” hike… Yup, he’s my kid!

The following day, we took the kids back to the Dennis The Menace park. This time, we had a full nights rest behind us, so we got to do a bit more running around.

First, I had to climb the rock wall. Just to make sure it was safe (and fun).

Then give Caralyne a little assistance. She really didn't need much, she was scared so I helped her choose which "pig noses" to grab hold of and step on.

Great job Caralyne!

Wow, and Michele too!

OWEN!? Wait a minute... Who's cheating??

Caralyne turned feral on us

The park is pretty nice, there are a lot of really cool slides, tunnels, climbing equipment, etc..

Around Lunch time we stopped by Trader Joes to pick up some last minute food items and ran into Summer and Steve there. We decided to grab lunch, but split off into two groups. Michele took Owen back to the Motel to nap while Caralyne and I got something to eat with Summer and Steve and hung out at their apartment for a while. Caralyne and I played Super Mario Brothers 3 on the Wii, then prepared for the beach BBQ.

All the attendee’s showed up around the same time, which is pretty darn impressive. What was also cool is Steve sent out a Google Latitude URL to the guests so they knew exactly where to meet us on the crowded beach. Pretty sweet! it is really neat when technology can help you plan and properly mobilize the entire group with a few simple tools like GPS and email. Those of us without cool smart phones (Glenn and myself) had to rely on smoke signals, my special eyes, and wandering.

Owen hung out in his wagon the whole time. I don't think he liked how the sand felt.

Erin and Glenn. Caralyne was borderline terrified of the two, so Erin was really nice and fostered a good repport by building a sand castle with Caralyne.

Like my capri's? Look, it was hot and I did't have shorts. Pants suck. Anyway, I did my best to try and help out with the food by tending the coals and burning the meat.

Owen enjoying the sunset while we pack up.

Thanks again Summer and Steve. Now, lets go blow some crap up!

After a late evening with some fireworks, we finally got back to our room around 10:30pm, tossed Owen in bed, and hit the hay.

The next morning we packed up, checked out by 10am, and met Steve and Summer at Peets for coffee/breakfast, and then hit the Aquarium. Steve always gives us a well planned guided tour, and I get to hear stories about all the display, posters, and exhibits.

Around 3pm we grabbed lunch and headed home. It was a nice conclusion to our pleasant weekend in a cooler climate with our friends.

Packet Filter

Based on Chris’s “Falling in love with pf(4)” google status, I decided to take the plunge and move off of ipfw(4) to pf(4). I’m not at the point where I could write my one filter, however, I do feel I at least understand what is happening here. I also took the time to update all my ports, so I’m even running PHP 5.3.2, the latest WP release and about 600 other installed ports (Yikes, I’ve got a LOT of stuff on this server!).

I’ve always built my own kernel, at least on my home server, so the first thing to do is sync my /usr/src tree:

$ sudo su -
root# csup ~/bin/src-supfile
...
root# vim /usr/src/sys/amd64/conf/BLACKHOLE
# pf
device          pf
device          pflog
# pf's QoS - ALTQ
options         ALTQ
options         ALTQ_CBQ        # Class Bases Queuing (CBQ)
options         ALTQ_RED        # Random Early Detection (RED)
options         ALTQ_RIO        # RED In/Out
options         ALTQ_HFSC       # Hierarchical Packet Scheduler (HFSC)
options         ALTQ_PRIQ       # Priority Queuing (PRIQ)
options         ALTQ_NOPCC      # Required for SMP build

root# cd /usr/src ; make -j8 buildkernel && make installkernel && reboot

I use tcsh, a C Shell variant, and I find the AND (&&) operator really useful to chain commands together but I require that they succeed. This way, if my build fails, it will abort and not proceed with the install and reboot.

Now that I have a updated kernel with PF enabled, I had to steal Chris’s configuration:

/etc/rc.conf

root# vim /etc/rc.conf
#
# Packet Filter
#
pf_enable="YES"
pf_rules="/etc/pf.conf"
pflog_enable="YES"

#
# Unused, pf replaces all of this
#
#natd_program="/sbin/natd"       # path to natd, if you want a different one.
#natd_enable="YES"                # Enable natd (if firewall_enable == YES).
#natd_interface="em0"               # Public interface or IPaddress to use.
#natd_flags="-u -s -m"                   # Additional flags for natd.
#firewall_enable="YES"
#firewall_script="/usr/local/etc/rc.firewall"
#firewall_logging="YES"

/etc/pf.conf

root# vim /etc/pf.conf
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# "THE BEER-WARE LICENSE" (Revision 42):
# cshumway@titan-project.org wrote this file. As long as you retain this notice you
# can do whatever you want with this stuff. If we meet some day, and you think
# this stuff is worth it, you can buy me a beer in return Christopher Shumway
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# pf.conf
ext_if="em0"
int_if="em1"
lan_net="192.168.2.0/24"
open_ports="{ domain, ssh, http, https }"

# options
set skip on lo0
set skip on $int_if
set limit states 25000
set loginterface $ext_if
set state-policy if-bound

# scrub traffic
scrub in all

# NAT
nat on $ext_if from $lan_net to any -> ($ext_if)

# upnp redirection
rdr-anchor "miniupnpd"
anchor "miniupnpd"

# antispoofing
antispoof for $ext_if

# rules start here
block in
pass out on $ext_if keep state
pass in on $ext_if inet proto { tcp, udp } from any to ($ext_if) port $open_ports flags S/SA keep state
pass in on $ext_if inet proto icmp

Pretty simple, and after a reboot my top process is java, and not natd(8). I can almost feel the internet becoming faster :)

Rock n Roll Owen

Unlike me, Owen still looks like a nice guy with shades on. I look like someone who would drive a black acura and cut you off...

Owen doesn't like the Paparazzi treatment!

We’ve made up, and did a publicity photo-op together

Caralyne’s Garden

Caralyne is skillful with both tending plants, and stapling things.

Dogs

Zoey and Coal sharing the morning sun

I got a little queasy on the drive up, and I think Owen did too. Hiking up to the peak was easier in that respect at least :

Whew, made it to the 1K mark...

View at 1K

Owen and I playing with pebbles, a milk jug, and two planter buckets

Still fun...

Owen's showing me the drill, small rocks (ones that float) go from the bucket into the jug.

Then they go back into the bucket.

I think I almost got it down...

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. I was busy sorting pebbles...

A hazy vista

Turkey Vultures

Back at home, Owen decided to colonize my chair, he explained that it was manifest destiny, and he'd be willing to give the chair back to me at a later date where it would be seen as a "chair"-itable thing to do.

Now he's leaving my chair, but only to leave it unguarded and defenseless

Great, now I've got a hyper Aussie in my lap :)

A hyper Aussie that likes the camera...

See, what a camera hog

Zoey seems bored of our antics