Cathy

Most recent arrival

Rider’s view 5:30AM Thursday.

About 10 minutes ago a skunk walked from behind the tent and across the highway. Uneventful. The skunk was minding its own business. Probably just making its regular morning rounds.

The most recent rider arrivals were Attila Kaldy, Jeff Oatley and Peter Oyler who all came in between 11-11:30 PM local Wednesday night. The last of those riders left the TS a few minutes ago after some rest at the campground behind the TS. All the crews and riders were friendly and seem in good spirits.

The sky is brightening. After more rain yesterday afternoon the day ended with a beautiful, sun-warmed evening. It’s been a crisp and cool night, about 40 F. Probably pefect for riders headed up Cuchara Pass.

Predicted arrivals for TS #19 have been many hours off. The next riders should be here at any time and we expect to see the lead women and the first of the teams sometime after noon.

Rain and RAAM

View from TS 19 Wednesday morning.

The rain started last night about 10 minutes after I left my house. By 11:00 PM local time (1:00 AM race time) the TS tent was serving as a roof for a pond with an average depth of about 4 inches. We moved a couple times before the first rider, Jure Robic, came through at 3:00 AM.

The rain has mostly stopped in the last hour. Five riders are past this TS; all in the Men’s Solo division. We don’t expect the next rider until 5 PM.

The RAAM is coming

2007 RAAM. Julio. I am about to head out to help with the RAAM timing station. The lead rider, Jure Robic, is seven, you read right, SEVEN, hours ahead of schedule. This is the first year I am helping with RAAM. I am as excited about my little job as Mark is about pacing for the Gold Coast Airport Marathon. If I were actually crewing someone I would probably pass out from the excitement. ; )

Canine color vision

… experiments showed that dogs do see color, but in a more limited range than […] humans, who see the rainbow of colors described by “VIBGYOR”: Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red. Instead, dogs see “VIBYYYR” (Violet, Indigo, Blue, Yellow, Yellow, Yellow, and Red). The colors Green, Yellow, and Orange all look alike to dogs; but look different from Red and different from the various Blues and Purples. Dogs are very good at telling different shades of VIB apart. Finally, Blue-Green looks White to dogs.
– Dana K. Vaughan, Ph.D., Dept. of Biology, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh

This is the best information I can find about the color vision of dogs. I really like playing with different colored discs. They make my human eyes happy, but I have a feeling that in most conditions using any color other than white puts Bonnie at a disadvantage. As the article points out, many factors make a greater contribution to a dog’s ability to see an object than color, but if dogs can’t distinguish between green, yellow and orange, using one of those colors on a green grass field removes one potential aid to a dog’s success. Too bad because currently this is my favorite disc (link to yellow hero xtra).

Interestingly, Bonnie won her first Frisbee award with an orange-yellow disc. The sky was overcast and white that morning and I thought the yellow disc made more contrast. Who knows if the color helped or hurt or made any difference at all. If I am ever reincarnated as a dog I will try to send a sign. ; )

[Links corrected/added 2010-Jul-01] Another article by Dr. Mark Plonsky. This one has illustrations to explain the differences in human and canine color vision.

Blog post by Mike Ettner.