Joel McCune

F-150 Plan

Tires for the F-150

The sting of paying for a new truck finally wore off enough to pull the trigger and get decent all-terrain tires for the F-150. Based on my analysis discussed in a previous post, Tire Size with Python and Pandas, I opted for a set of 285/70R17's, a

Teaching Risk

"Dad, can we do that run again?" asked Jesse. At the time, he was barely seven. We were headed up the ski lift at White Pass for our last run before the lifts closed. I knew why he wanted to do the same run again. He really likes

Learning About Doing Hard Things

Dad, it really hurts! Jesse had just finished a cross-country running race. Jesse is our oldest son. He is nine. For context, I also ran cross-country...a lot. I ran four years of high school cross-country and track, and was privileged to be a very successful runner on a very

whitewater

Beyond the Bunny Hill in a Boat

With skiing, it is the first time you are able to head up the lift with your kid. You know full well it likely may take an hour to get down to the bottom, and may even include some crying halfway down, but going up the lift, you are finally

whitewater

The Siren Song of Mountains and Rivers

The best way to describe the feeling is contentment. I was just north of I-90 high on a ridge, parked alongside a forest road on the Idaho and Montana border lying in the dark inside the GoFastCamper (GFC) installed a few hours earlier in Bozeman, MT. After getting the combination

paddling

Rafting for Father's Day

This past weekend over Father's Day was the first time we have done a multi-day raft trip with just the four of us, just our family. It went spectacularly. We have done multi-day trips before, just not with only us. Going with other people definitely is one of

F-150 Plan

Anything But a Driveway Queen

We use a truck like a truck. It gets dirty, both inside and out. We toss a LOT of gear in the back, tow raft trailers, and sleep in the back. With four of us, we have simply outgrown our Toyota Tacoma. Hence, the F-150 Plan. Three weeks ago, we

The Business of the Outdoors

"A degree in Business?" He said the last word, "Business," as if it were a dirty word...almost as if uttering a disparaging slur. He, in the fall, would start his final year of high school. He was from an upper-middle class family, and following high

F-150 Plan

First Trip and Initial Impressions

On Thursday before Mother's Day we picked up the F-150 we ordered a few months ago, the first step in the F-150 Plan. We already had planned on heading to White Salmon for Mother's Day weekend, so by the next afternoon, we were headed south on

Tire Size with Python and Pandas

Trying to sort out the what tires are available, and will work with a vehicle is ridiculously frustrating. We ordered a new base model F-150 in February. It its supposed to arrive this month in a week or so. Ever since the 90's I have run BFGoodrich All-Terrain

whitewater

Wyatt Is A Better Model Than I Am

Tuesday nights, ever since the time change when we got more daylight back in the evenings, have become kayak practice nights with the boys. We just head to the Deschutes here in Olympia, Washington between Pioneer Park and the Valley Golf Course. It is little more than moving water. The

whitewater

Please Do Not Be Careful

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller When I originally wrote this, our boys were four and six. Now they

F-150 Plan

The F-150 Plan

As much as I like to think I want a truck for getting to that far flug place most vehicles simply cannot get to, the reality is most of what I need a truck for is driving a long ways on forest roads with a lot of gear. This gear

Python

Copy PySpark Schemas to Clipboard

Frequently, I have a need to both explicitly define input data schemas for processing using PySpark and simultaneously include the schema in Sphinx documentation. Usually I can get the schema for loading without too much difficulty by outputting df.schema in a Jupyter Notebook, and copy-paste into my loading method.

Python

Install ArcGIS Python API on Apple Silicon

NOTE: This has been resolved by the ArcGIS Python API team. Now, you can install the ArcGIS Python API without having to use the Rosetta Emulator. Apple's new ARM-based processors, the M1 and M2, "Apple Silicon," chips, offer impressive performance. Unfortunately, when it comes to the

Python

ArcPy Python Logging Handler

Update 01Nov2022 - After Pat's comment, I decided to create a discrete repo, ArcPy-Logger, to make it easier to use.  In the process, I also updated the Gist based on a few tweaks I made, and added brief documentation as well. Especially with long-running or even scheduled tasks,

Python

Learn to Code

"I hate doing things twice!" I was in Okinawa, Japan on a US military installation. At the time I was a software instructor, and I was watching another contractor doing some maintenance on one of the computers literally writing a batch script faster than I could type. It

Rainer

Wyatt's Rainier Map

"I'm making a map!" The nook in our kitchen is perpetually covered with drawing paper, construction paper, markers, crayons and scissors. Wyatt, our five-year-old, if we put any of it away, promptly drags it all out again. Crafts, especially drawing, is quite commonplace. This statement a

pontifications

Life is a River

Life is an adventure, a journey with no map. The only way is forward. Life is an exploratory river trip. Too many times we stand aside And let the waters slip away Till what we put off till tomorrow Has now become today So don't you sit upon

pontifications

Growth for the Sake of Growth

> "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell." -Edward Abbey It has been nearly 30 years since I first read those words. Of all the outdoor books I read growing up (there were a lot), this single quote from The Journey Home

training

Not As Good As I Once Was...

There are a lot of things easier about being in my 40's, but being at the pinnacle of ahleticism is not one of the them. Few have the opportunity to achieve a regional, national or international level in sport. I was lucky enough to experience a national level

ArcGIS

Outdoor Geography - Again

The real reason I became interested in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) had nothing to do with getting a job. It had everything to do with wandering around in the woods, finding things, and getting back to them. Strangely, in the interim, somehow I now find myself inside (in a basement

arcpy

ArcGIS Pro Ensure Minimum Version in Python

Functionality is continually added to ArcGIS Pro. When creating Python scripts taking advantage of new functionality, it is helpful to be able to check the version to either use an alternative method, or at least provide an error message informing the end user of needing to upgrade. Fortunately, ArcPy provides

Geography Matters

Outdoor Stories

Outdoor enthusiasts are inherently geographers and storytellers. Wandering around outside requires some level of geographic literacy just to get there and back. It does not take more than a few minutes with anybody who loves the outdoors to discover reminiscing about experiences, telling stories, also is an inherent part of

Python

ArcPy Describe <dot> Properties

A tremendous amount of information is available through arcpy.Describe. Until ArcGIS Pro 2.8 though, figuring out what properties were available for the object you had just described required digging into the documentation pretty deep. Now, it is much easier to access these properties introspectively as a dictionary. Since