Quite a storm at the moment, here’s our current weather forecast:
SOUTHERN LYNN CANAL-
400 AM AKST SAT NOV 14 2009
...GALE WARNING THROUGH TONIGHT....TODAY...S WIND 35 KT INCREASING TO 45 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. SEAS
9 FT. RAIN IN THE MORNING...THEN RAIN AND SNOW SHOWERS IN THE
AFTERNOON.
.TONIGHT...S WIND 35 KT DIMINISHING TO 25 KT LATE. SEAS 7 FT
SUBSIDING TO 5 FT LATE. RAIN AND SNOW SHOWERS.
.SUN...S WIND 20 KT. SEAS 4 FT. SNOW SHOWERS.
.SUN NIGHT...N WIND 20 KT. SEAS 4 FT. SNOW SHOWERS.
.MON...N GALE TO 35 KT. SEAS 6 FT. RAIN AND SNOW SHOWERS.
.TUE...N GALE TO 35 KT. SEAS 7 FT.
.WED...N WIND 25 KT. SEAS 5 FT.
Power went out around 7:30am, so decided to go tour the area. The entire town is in the dark. A power boat had broken loose in Aurora harbour and driven by the gale had pinned an also loose sailboat to the breakwater. Found a small leak at one window frame, and the cover to the stack from the boiler blew off – retrieved for safekeeping until things are calmer. Mother nature at her most powerful. Reminds me of my childhood in Oban, Scotland - same latitude, same storms.
Power came back on at 8:30am, good job AEL&P. Be interesting to find out what was the cause, and if the additional power from the new Lake Dorothy power station reduced the need to use backup diesel generators.
After watching 60 Minutes last Sunday on Sabotaging the System about the potential for hackers to get into computer systems that run crucial elements of the world’s infrastructure, such as the power grids, water works, etc., very thankful to be “off the grid” and reliant on hydro power which, given the amount of rainfall here, is a renewable resource.
No hot tub this morning – how fortunate I am to have this as my only complaint. The World Food Program states that, for the first time, a billion people are hungry and without food security. It has launched a campaign – a billion for a billion – to help raise funds for the starving.
Even though I believe that feeding hungry people is simply keeping them alive until the next crisis, and that such crises are nature’s way of controlling the human population explosion, from a humanitarian perspective how can one not contribute without being callous? The human dilemma: we can control neither our exploding population nor its consequences. Pass the word…… [Note: I earmarked my donations to "provide meals to more school children, especially girls, thus allowing them to stay in school." It's my belief that the best way to control population is by educating girls - not to mention ameliorating the over-abundance of testosterone that has produced our present climate of global violence.]
I ran across a story that finally hit the Internet news only this morning though it was first published 2 months ago (at least as far as I can find.) The gist of it is that 70% of the nation’s young people 17-24 are ineligible to enlist in the armed forces because of inadequate education, criminal records or being physically unfit – ie obese. While issues of early childhood education and poverty obviously matter, what struck me about this as well as the debate on health care is the lack of discussion about the food industry and agribusinesses’ role in destroying the nation’s health – purely out of greed. Then last night I watched Frontline’s documentary on the Medicated Child. It’ll make you cry to see little kids on as many as 8 behavior-controlling drugs, with devastating long-term impacts on their lives and health.
We live in a money-driven society. The role of corporate greed in climate change, war, and ill health comes ever more into focus. Follow the money. Where are the profits? They’re in the arms industry, the food industry, the drug industry, the insurance industry. Until the collective we faces up to and deals with this elephant in the living room, we’re putting a death wish on this country, and most likely on our species.
What time is it? Right now it’s beginning to feel like “0 dark 30″ to quote our friend Dana. Losing 5 minutes of daylight each day we still have 7 weeks to go to winter solstice with its 6 1/2 hours of daylight. For today sunrise is at 8:07am and sunset at 5:15pm, so we’re basking in 9+ hours of day. Not bad, especially since the first part of October had a lot of dry and sun. But now it’s gone back to being true to it’s usually rainy form and the darkening of each day is palpable. The upside is that overnight the snow line crept down Mount Juneau and a white paintbrush passed over the evergreens up the hill from our house. A good reminder of how beautiful this place can be during the winter. And, we took our evening tub on the new deck last night around 9pm. What a privilege to sit under a roof of spruce branches with drops of drizzle on our faces, soaking up the healing warmth of the tub’s 104 degree water.
Interesting news item on the ‘Net – herself is now 40 years old. That means we’re living with two generations that don’t know what it was like without her. Me, myself, I didn’t even see TV until I’d passed 21. Who knows what the next few decades will bring in the way of technological advancement. Wouldn’t it be nice if our collective social and political skills advanced at the same rate?
It’s hard not to notice that there are still voices saying climate change ain’t happenin’ – or if it is, it has nothing to do with us humans. The evidence is tough to discount, but those voices manage it. I think they’re wrong but that’s my perspective and who am I to say I’ve got it right.
For a long time I’ve thought we humans were headed for a rough time, that there are way too many of us and – like all population explosions - we’re headed for a population crash. War, pestilence, natural or man-made disaster, something will stop and most likely dramatically reverse our population growth. Maybe climate change will be the end of growth for our species – along with a whole bunch of others.
The twin impacts of overpopulation and climate change are reasons that on retiring we (Bill and I) roamed out of the way of human density and eventually moved into Alaska’s cooler climate. According to Celsias, a useful website that tracks climate change, it’ll be only about 25 years before things start crashing down around our collective ears. Those who are paying attention are already shifting out of the way. Major turbulence lies ahead. However large one’s nostalgia for them, don’t expect it’ll ever go back to the way things used to be. To quote Mames Moberley, an almost forgotten humorist: “Ah yes, the good old days. I was there. Where was they?” They’re gone for good…..
For an old lady, I seem to be technologically inclined. I’ve been that way all my life, so why should I stop now? Don’t know if it has anything to do with my proclivity for science as a kid – though that may have had more to do with my being in love with Mr. Holderness, my chemistry teacher and author of the then standard textbook. Or maybe it’s genetic – both my parents were chemists who morphed into photographers. For whatever reasons, I ended up studying chemistry and physiology in college – after reluctantly abandoning the desire to be a pig farmer.
As a young mother I bought a programmable calculator (HP, 12-steps) in 1977 and discovered what a program was. This was followed by a TRS-80 with a tape recorder for storage (before disk drives) and staying up nights to master the elements of programming languages (Basic) and the 3 software programs that came with the machine: Scripsit (word processing); VisiCalc (the first spreadsheet); and Profile (database).
Careerwise, since I had an aptitude for this stuff I ended up having responsibility for it – so the interest and knowledge just kind of kept on building. Learned (and since forgot) all kinds of details about hardware, huge database applications, and programming languages. Even built a few in my time.
Since the Internet it’s been all downhill. Started with a CompuServe account in the early 1990’s, and slid into web development when we moved aboard Callipygia and created one of the first blogs. I won’t absolutely say it’s an addiction, maybe downgrade it to a (marginally controlled) compulsion. In fact days go by when I don’t turn on the computer until the afternoon. Fact is, I don’t miss it when I’m outdoors – not one bit. I’m happy to leave all things technological behind when off in the wilderness. For days, if need be. And, I quit using an electronic organizer long ago. Don’t have and don’t want an iPhone or Blackberry. I don’t want to be electronic in the car, or away from work/home. Too much of a distraction from the real world.
I started this post with the intention of sharing a few things that may be of interest, so let’s do it:
I’m into web design and development, and lately moving into print ditto. It’s important to me to learn how to use applications efficiently. And productively. Being on a constant learning curve keeps the brain neurons firing away in old age, too. To that end I pay $25/month to subscribe to the Lynda.com video training library. Between this and various other Internet resources, I no longer need to buy expensive and bulky reference and teaching texts. I highly recommend this training source, it’s the main reason I can keep my skills growing.
I have RSS news feeds in my Firefox toolbar, and I scan a dozen or so sources each morning, or whenever I first log in and have checked email. Among these are Mashable and Wired, since I like to keep up with what’s going on in the communications technology world. Today, I learned about WiFi Direct – seems like a coming big deal. Read about it. Then I learned about a recently discovered vegetarian spider, whose males take care of the young.
The network news has been well labelled infotainment – not much news in it, mostly talking heads dismembering elected officials.. You have to watch Jon Stewart discussing CNN and it’s non-ability to cover “real” news. If you liked that, check out his coverage of Fox News. The man is brilliant.
Bill and I were discussing some of our travels in sweet Callipygia (still anchored in my heart) in the Caribbean last night and remembered the beatiful music of the New Dominion Steel Orchestra, which we listened to while anchored in Prickly Bay, Grenada, back in 2004.
This thought led me to search the Internet (I’ve been hoping to find a CD of their work somewhere) where I found this YouTube video. Enjoy – it surely brings back the immense pleasure and enjoyment of our cruising years.
Reminiscing is one of the great pleasures of growing old – so long as one has enough “hooks” to hang on to that help to recall those memories. Thank goodness for the notes I made and collected on our website!
Short on my own thoughts and behind on posts, so instead here are Audrey Hepburn’s words to ponder in old age – and more immediately, light up the darkness that’s beginning to shorten our days:
“For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone. People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, and the other for helping others.”
It came to me via a friend. Nice bit of viral health. Thanks Barb!
Last spring the flowing sap triggered a desire in me to do something about our small and raggedy yard. Ideas floundered all over the map before settling on building a deck. Our lot is long and narrow, as is the house. A short driveway shares the front with a square of open grass. (Next spring, a raised vegetable garden?) The backyard is a jungle under two giant spruce trees. A string of smaller trees and shrubs (two look like the rowans of my youth) provide some privacy from neighbors to the rear.
We were lucky to have stashed away the wherewithal to undertake a significant project, and lucky to be led to John Staub (double-bass player par excellence) as our contractor – though we had to wait a few months ’til he was free. We used the time to order and have shipped up on the barge a sliding-glass access door (6 weeks) and hot tub (4 weeks.) And we found Patrick at the Glory Hole who labored to make a gravel walkway along one side of the house, thus providing necessary access to the back.
Since Labor Day John has knocked out the wall from our bedroom to the back yard and installed the access door with adjacent window (for night-time air) Next he built a sunken pad for the hot tub and around it a roomy deck. Then 4-5 steps down from the deck on each side, and now he’s building a ten-step stairway up to the yard of our dear ones next door. The tub was delivered a week ago, requiring a day’s work by an electrician to do magic so the thing actually works. Then we needed professional help from the tub distributor (Lyle’s Home Furnishing) to overcome our intimidation at the knobs and chemicals that came with it. Turned out to be much simpler than it appeared from reading package directions and owner’s manuals. I think.
Last night, once dark arrived (around 8pm) Bill and I geared ourselves up and, swathed in towel, prepared to open the sliding door and sally forth for the tub’s baptismal sit. Well doggone it, there’s a frigging bear on the deck, sniffing around the tub. Next it ambled across to the (by now tightly locked) glass door to see what was up. Thankfully the animal was fairly small but still big enough to worry about. There have been a few in the neighborhood lately, and one walked behind the deck last week while John was at work. Maybe the same one. If it has become a “garbage bear” and habituated to finding urban leftovers, it may have a short life. Decided to notify the authorities, and sent an email to the Juneau Police Department “Ask the Dispatcher” to find out who has the thankless task of removing bears and trying to get them back into the wild out the road.
Meanwhile, it’s Sunday morning and I have a hot cup of coffee in hand. Think I’ll go sit in the tub, look up through the trees, and listen to the birds. Yesterday, aside from many robins, our back yard hosted a varied thrush, a grey-cheeked thrush, a bunch of juncos, and a pair of song sparrow. Until now, I didn’t even know they were there.
Saturday, I joined two other Audubon members to make the trip out the road to its end at Echo Cove (39 miles) and spent a couple of hours retrieving human detritus from the rocky shore of that isolated spot. We were among the many who participated in the annual International Coastal Clean Up around the globe. Among items found: one tire, one car fender, one outboard motor, a few rusty shipwreck parts, countless beer cans and cigarette wrappers, a couple of bits of fishing line and, thankfully, no dead or entrapped wildlife.
Later, my neighbor son came by for a moment to raid our refrigerator for lemon juice (he was making a fig tart) and grabbed a mouthful of cornbread left on the counter from the previous night’s supper. It reminded us how much our family loved those Thomas Corn Toast R Cakes when growing up, and we reminisced that we haven’t seen them anywhere for years. A quick bit of googling discovered that they’re still available from the Thomas English Muffin company – but no stores in Juneau stock them. We’ll see what we can do about that…..
Our deck project is well underway, sliding door from bedroom to deck has been installed, the deck floor is pretty much done, and the hot-tub was delivered yesterday. A black bear ambled through the yard in the morning to check on progress.
The days are shortening, we’ve lost 6 hours of daylight in the 3 months since solstice. The daily (except Saturday) Juneau Empire awaits us regardless of what time we rise it seems. Lights up our early morning routine along with the automatic coffeemaker, our robes ‘n slippers, and the electric gizmo adding warm ambience from the fireplace. We don’t usually fight over who gets which bit of the paper, it’s pretty much settled that Bill gets the news while I get the bridge problem. The Empire’s a vanishing species – a good community newspaper. It recently began redesigning it’s website, albeit with annoying pop-up ads. One supposes they must be essential to help keep any newspaper alive. If you want to get a feel for what life is like here, subscribe to the Empire’s news (RSS) feed and read all about it.
Finally, we’re learning for the anti-health reform pundits that fines are taxes. If we have to coerce you into doing something needed for us to function as a society, it’s a tax. Does this mean that fines for not carrying automobile insurance are a tax? Are parking fines a tax? Are fines for spilling oil on waterways a tax? Are fines for spitting on other people a tax? Gimme a break. We are a social animal and there are too many of us. Without functioning social norms it’s a short slide into anarchy.
“Under communism, man is manipulated by man – whereas under capitalism, it’s the other way around.” John Kenneth Galbraith.
I work out at the Juneau Racket Club 3-4 four times a week – mostly for (a) the exercise but also for (b) the view, and (c) the subsequent sauna treat. It’s a short 5-minute walk from our house to the downtown branch, where the equipment is stashed in 3 long rows facing a swath of big windows looking out over the Gastineau Channel. It’s a blast to watch the cruise ships arrive in the early morning and inch their way carefully towards the dock or, as the case may be on a busy day with 5-6 of them coming in, anchor. Framing the top of the windows is a strip of TV displays – thankfully, all muted to their various channels so you have the choice of wearing earphones if you want to listen. Mostly I don’t, but usually a row of text appears at the bottom (what the heck is the word for that? I’ve lost it….) so if I have my glasses on I can follow what’s being said.
The point is, that one day last week I had an eye on two adjacent TV monitors. One featured Robert Reich talking about his new book Supercapitalism in which he writes that power has shifted from the individual’s role as citizen to his/her role as consumer and investor. In the aggregate, we no longer value life as prime, we now value money as the most important element. This shift has alienated us from governance and community. To see what he meant, all I had to do was switch to glancing at the adjacent screen showing a thirty-minute commercial about cosmetics, with beautiful young women coating their faces with all kinds of (possibly cancer-inducing) crap while smugly simpering and making sexy eyes at the camera. The contrast was mind-boggling. A truly pathetic if entertaining illustration of the kind of manipulation Galbraith was talking about.
But then, Friday a strong boost of community still going strong. We walked down to the ribbon-cutting at the newly refurbished Harborview Elementary School, where one of our grandkids still goes. Nice speeches from assorted state and local elected officials recalling their days through those doors 50 years ago, not to mention an engaging prescence of current student hosts for the event. Cookies, fruit and punch served in the new “Commons” area to background music from two youthful string quartets. The renovation has produced an outstandingly functional and beautiful interior, bright, airy, colorful and practical learning space in which one can barely discern even a ghost of the previous dark and somewhat grimy rooms. From there to the Canvas as part of the First Friday art walk through downtown to look at the beautiful bird paintings of by local artist Alan Munro. Home for late supper of halibut chowder – locally caught just yesterday. So, in Juneau at least, clear evidence that community is still alive and well.
couple of hours retrieving human detritus from the rocky shore of that isolated spot. We were among the many who participated in the annual 