Monday Odds and Ends (posted Tuesday)

After a couple of long posts, I get to do a short one. Just a few shots from yesterday. After class, I stopped at the UAA library to get the Levi-Strauss books and ran into this old friend. I got to see this Steven Gordon painting everyday when my office was in the library building in with ISER. That was before the library was expanded. It was nice to see it again - still in the library building. Gordon manages to capture the look and feel of the trees here. I mean, it's just a bunch of trees, right? No, it's much, much more than that. (I thought about cropping the chair out of the picture. It really messes up the balance badly. But, it's part of the environment of the picture now. And this is supposed to be a fast post.)

Then back home with my treasures. It was gratifying to see that I'm not the only one still using my bike. While I'm not riding with the frequency of the summer, at least to the University and back isn't too far and the paths are well maintained. I was also glad to see in the ADN yesterday that the city has put up new bike racks. I'm curious to see what they got. Not all bike racks are equal. Some are almost impossible to use, but the ones here are good. It says $17,000 for 13 bike racks, which sounds steep. But each rack should accommodate 5-10 bikes which would come to $130-$260 per bike space. It also included two bike boxes - I saw some of those in Portland - which I'm sure are much more expensive. But, compared to car parking spaces, it's a great deal. And if bikers had better spaces to ride (the trails are nice, but only if they go where you are going, and the ones along the streets can be pretty bumpy) and safely lock their bikes, more people would bike, even in winter.

Then we needed a Thai fix, and ran into our mayor, whose suspense over the election might end today. He was picking up take out with his son at the Thai Kitchen. Of course, he can't do this without talking to everyone. I wonder how long it will take, if all goes well, for everyone in DC to know who he is too. A little more time than it took Sarah I'm sure.