What's Keeping Me From Blogging?

So much . . .

Weekly trips to pick up our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) [It's a USDA website so go quick before the regime either takes it down because it's too 'woke' or it crashes from neglect or incompetence.]

They use salt - some Alaska salt - and mix it with things for use in cooking, eating, and making your house smell better, like in the simmer pots.  

I've highlighted soap artist (seriously, what she does is art!)  Kit before.  She showed me a prototype of a soap she's working on that will have a Rorschach test on it.  I asked if there are psychiatrist interpretations included.  Those, she assured me, would cost a lot more.  Learn more at MirthAlaska.com. 

There was a long line at the WIC table.  This market is in the lowest income area of Anchorage and the Grow North Farm here - sponsored by RAIS (Refugee Assistance and Immigration Service), a part of Catholic Social Services - is an urban farm worked by refugees.  

It was gray and threatening, but not raining all that day, but it finally came down on the ride home.  It was so light it really only got my clothes slightly damp.  And my odometer with drops.

I've gone past my 1600 km goal for the summer - one reason I guess I haven't blogged as much.  All that biking along Anchorage's green bike paths has been good for my physical and mental health during this disastrous time in US history.  

The picture below was on an earlier ride on the Campbell Creek south trail.  And I'm delaying today's ride to get this post up.

The mushroom isn't connected to anything else in this post, but of course mushrooms and fungus in general are connected to everything underground.  You can't really tell but this one was five or six inches across.  Growing right next to the compost pile.  

  
                                                                      

Again, a somewhat random picture here.  Walking down the steps after a routine doctor visit at Providence, I was greeted with the lovely sounds of live piano music.  The acoustics in the huge atrium entrance are great and the notes pulled me over to listen to the end and thank the musician.

Our power, phone/internet went out during the windstorm a week ago Friday.  This downed cottonwood was the culprit.  Chugach Electric had the power back on the next morning when we woke up.  Alaska Communications took until Tuesday or Wednesday to come out and then they didn't have the equipment to fix it right, so while the phone line and internet are back on, the wire is lying on the ground and about two feet off the ground in some places I have to walk.  In what world is that acceptable?  Alaska Communications is so terrible!  The techs I have to call now and then and those who come out to the house are generally very good.  It's just the management that has promised me fiber every summer since 2023 and not delivered that pisses me off.  And the website that has the circle of death spinning hopelessly when I try to pay online, and then they charge me a %25 late fee because I couldn't pay online.  With no grace period.  None.  Visa emails me three days before to remind me to pay my bill.  ACS emails three days after it's due to say, "We screwed you again."  I'm ready to cut that cord forever.  

Got that off my chest.  

Our neighbor did hook us up to his power with a series of extension cords to power the refrigerator since we didn't know how long it was going to take to get the power back.  We decided to go to Queen of Sheba for dinner that night.  Here's David, the owner and chef, chatting with us after our meal.  

Ethiopian food is truly special and delicious.  Anchorage folks, go eat there and keep them in business.  The prices are reasonable for this day and age.  

It's between Northern Lights and Benson - on Dawson.  

So, probably this should have been three or four blog post spread over the week.  

But I'm not done.  I've been reading several books at once, but I'll just highlight Caraval.  This was a recommendation from my 12 year old granddaughter.  When I told her I was number 25 on the waiting list at Loussac Library, she said, "I told you that you'll never get it."

But I got an email saying it was mine to pick up.  I understand why people read it.  Each chapter ends with a cliffhanger of sorts.  And I think the author has synesthesia, because every feeling is associated with a color, some vibrating.  Lots more descriptions of odors than you normally see too.  And I don't think Nancy Drew ever had chills from the touch of a young man's bare chest leaning against her. 

I'd say this teen fiction is the gateway drug to adult romance fiction.  

Moving along - I'm still overwhelmed with the barrage of outrageous statements and actions spewing from the White House.  Here are a few images that I've saved as I try to find new ways to ask my junior US Senator how long he thinks he can wade in this filth before he is sucked under completely.  He gleefully points at what he sees as 'wins' for Alaska, while the president tramples the constitution by kidnapping people off the streets, invading US cities with our military, ignoring judge's orders, bombing boaters in international waters, gerrymandering Texas to squeeze out Democratic house seats, and on and on and on.  I didn't even mention Epstein.  And Dan Sullivan turns a blind eye to all of that in exchange for some oil drilling permits.  

My previous post was on the normalization of the word normalization.  Nothing could illustrate that point better than this post by His Travesty.   

What previous president could have done something like this and not been impeached?  Some say it's just 'a humorous bit' but I did a paper on government humor once.  What I learned was that government humor that is self deprecating is fine, but government humor that punches down is NOT fine.  

And then his Vice Travesty defends another military operation off the coast of Venezuela:

Has anyone seen any evidence that these are cartel members (just like we haven't seen any evidence that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was a member of Tren de Aragua gang)?

I copied this one for Labor Day.  We're back to the time when business owners could call on the government to bring in troops to break up labor unions.  And when I say 'break up' I mean that literally.  But they stood in solidarity until they won their rights which have benefited most of us.  (You know, 40 day weeks, paid overtime, health benefits, the right to grieve bad treatment, etc.)  We have to be as brave and persistent now to prevent what's happening today.  

I don't believe ignorance is greater now than it was.  But the propaganda forces of the fascists have powerfully taken advantage of that ignorance, and the latent fears of white America.  They've taken all the damage to the working classes done by exporting jobs and increasing the income gap and blamed it on Black people and immigrants.  

 I remember when the first polio vaccines became available and we got poked at school.  My small pox vaccine scar no longer really shows, but I was inoculated.  

Public health programs have saved more lives than medical treatment of individuals.   As I look for good links to explain the importance of public health to society, I see that some of the most important public health initiatives - clean water and sewage systems - are so taken for granted that they aren't even mentioned.  But we haven't always had clean water and sewage systems.  And parts of the world still don't have them.  

President Nixon famously had an enemies list.  But no president has ever, so blatantly used the powers of the federal government to go after his perceived enemies.  The president is publicly telling the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute people who oppose him.  And as a blogger, I found this cartoon a bit close to home.  

I tell myself I'm just a tiny voice out in the wilderness and they have much bigger targets than me.  But I also notice that Google says my recent posts have way more hits that I usually get.  Stat Counter has always shown far fewer hits than Google, but they also track individual visitors.  I can't tell if I really have more hits or whether there are more bots.  In times past when there were lots more hits, it looked like someone scraping my blog for content, and more recently for AI.  But when that happens you can see a single user going to thirty or more different pages per day.  So many hits on a single page is different.  

In any case, I want people to stay strong and be engaged in fighting this regime to preserve our democracy (not to mention our health and economy and general well being.)  Do what you can.  And take breaks to laugh, enjoy nature, good friends.   Find like minded people.  And know your rights.  

And a teaser for a post I hope to put up this week.  

From Animalspot.net

The Bridge Is Gone. New One Usable, But Not finished.

I was riding with a young friend who was biking home from the university for the first time.  As we approached the bridges I told her that they were building a new one, but we'd have to turn left and take the old one.  

And then we got to that point (from the north) and there was the new bridge, open to be ridden over.  The old trail (part of which is being eroded by the creek) was blocked off.  

It's not quite finished.  The bridge itself is cement, but the ramps up to the bridge are still dirt and gravel.  

Here's what the bridge looked like earlier this summer.  

Today, from the other side, it looked like this:

All blocked off.  From a different angle it appeared there was no longer a bridge there.

This last view is from the south.  On the right is where the old bridge was. On the left is the new bridge - a much more substantial looking bridge.  

You can see the earlier post on building this bridge here.

Bridge For Sale, Maybe [Updated]

 Here's the bridge.  It crosses Campbell Creek near 56th and 57th Avenues.  

The trail to the bridge is being eroded by the creek.  If you're biking, you've come from the Arctic Roadrunner on Old Seward Highway, and gotten to an 'offramp' to 56th Avenue to the right as you ride to the left.  There's a spot where the creek is eroding the earth right next to the trail.  Then you come to a curve with a bench and get to this point where it says, "Sidewalk Closed."  

Well it's been closed a few times this year as heavy equipment has been making a new path to a spot across the bridge and to the right, where a new bridge will take the place of this old bridge.   

Below is a view from the cutoff on the north side.  The trail to the right is an exit to 56th (and Fairbanks).  To the left you can see the old bridge.  And straight ahead is the new bridge being put in place this summer.  The current trail curves around to the left (about where I'm taking the picture), past the erosion point (see below) and on to Taku Lake and beyond.  

                                                                                         Here's the detour map they've put up on the trail when the bridge was closed off.  It shows better where exactly this is.
The street to the north (above) is International Airport Road.  To the south is Dowling.  To the right is Old Seward.  I added the yellow circle so you could see just where these bridges are.  

NB = New Bridge;  OB = Old Bridge   The red line is the bike trail which follows along the creek.  [As I'm proofing this before posting, I see the white line for the new bridge is too long.  It just crosses the creek and doesn't go all the way to the trail as you'll see in pictures below.]

This was back on May 27, 2025 when they were clearing brush and just starting this year's work on the bridge.  From the south side.

Below is from the south again on June 23, 2025. 

And here's the bridge from the south on July 2, 2025.  Well, you can see the ramp up to the bridge.  The truck is blocking the view of the bridge itself.

Below is the bridge from the north on June 24, 2025

And then the same view on July 2, 2025, with the ramp in place.  

Below is where the creek is eroding the trail.  They added the sandbags recently.

And this is the old bridge from the south side.  Straight ahead is the bench I mentioned, though it's hard to see in the picture.  

I've been on this trail once or twice a week since late March/early /April (the snow and ice were gone early this year.)

There are a couple of guys there whose job is to deal with bikes and pedestrians when the bridge is blocked or when vehicles are crossing the trail.  

I asked, early on, what happens to the old bridge.  I was told it would be scrapped.  

So I'm posting this now, just in case anyone can use this old bridge somewhere.  Now would be the time to contact the Municipality and inquire about whether you can take the bridge, or buy it, and what it would take to do that.  Perhaps trying to move it would damage it.  But they moved the London Bridge to Arizona, so I would expect this would be a much easier job.

UPDATE:  As of about July 22, 2025 the new bridge is crossable, though not completely finished.  The old bridge is gone.  See new bridge post here.

Odds & Ends: Eclipses, Spring, Printer Cartridges, Private Concerts

 I was in sunny Anchorage yesterday, not in the path of the eclipse.  But in 2019 my daughter invited us to meet her and her family to see an eclipse in San Juan, Argentina.   It was a memorable experience out in the desert.  But at the time I was a bit disappointed that it didn't get really dark, just dusk-like.  My image of an eclipse was that day turned to night for a minute or so.  

My daughter went to Texas to see yesterday's eclipse.  It was cloudy, but the sun poked out through the clouds so they could see the moon covering over the sun, part of the time.  But because it was cloudy, it also got much darker than it was in Argentina.  

So, two things about eclipses: 

1.  Watching the sun covered by the moon.  You can only do that if you have special glasses or other way to darken the image.  Otherwise the brightness of the sun makes it impossible to see the eclipsing moon.  

2.  Experience the change from full daylight to night.  As you can see in the picture (sort of, since the camera's auto lighting affects things a bit) it got twilight in Argentina but not so dark you needed lights if you were driving - as my daughter reported happened yesterday.  So clouds don't completely ruin an eclipse.  You experience more darkness than without clouds.  

SPRING

Anchorage had near record snow for the year - about three inches less than the snowiest winter - so there's still a lot of snow.  But we're seeing larger areas of snowless ground - under the bigger trees in the back yard and along the edges of the snow piles.  Here's Campbell Creek on March 28

And here it is on April 7, ten days later.  Somewhat disappointing that there is now a large piece of trash in the creek.  The trails along the main streets are clear of snow, but the trails along the creeks through the woods still covered.  

The two days of sunshine reminded me that April has often been a wonderful month, but today we have a heavy cloud cover again.  [I just looked up.  It's snowing out.  I really don't need enough snow to set the record.]

PRINTER CARTRIDGES

Lots of people have complained about the printer cartridge scam.  You buy an inexpensive printer, only to be stuck for buying ink cartridges for outrageous prices.  

At Office Depot, to get all four colors for my printer costs $166!!!  

To buy a whole new printer costs $4 more - $170.  They're considerably cheaper online. And then there are kits to refill the old cartridges yourself.  But HP and the others know consumers are too lazy to fill their own cartridges or in too much of a rush to shop around.  Presumably, the market would work if people balked at these prices and didn't buy the new cartridges.  Or is this just a ploy to get people to buy a new printer.  Either way this contributes to waste for the earth and profit for HP.  

What is the cost of a whole printer and packaging compared to four cartridges?  

From Stock Analysis:

"Financial Performance

In 2023, HP Inc.'s revenue was $53.72 billion, a decrease of -14.61% compared to the previous year's $62.91 billion. Earnings were $3.26 billion, an increase of 4.18%."

So they took in almost 15% less total revenue in 2023 than 2022, but increased their profit by 4%.  How much of that profit was from printer cartridges?  

PRIVATE CONCERTS

Before the pandemic, someone invited us to a home nearby to hear a concert.  Since then we've been to four or five such concerts.  Usually it's a $20 donation plus a dish for the buffet to attend.  Sunday we went to a jazz performance there - the first one for us that wasn't classical. 

Here's John Damberg on the vibes and Mark Manners on the guitar.  Bob Andrews hand can be seen on the bass, and drummer Eiden Pospisil is hidden in the background.  The second half connected much better for me - I'm not a big vibes fan and Damberg spent more time on the piano and the guitar had a bigger role.  

But it was a wonderful evening with lots of very friendly people - maybe about 40 or so.  [While I called it a 'private' concert, it was noted in the Anchorage Daily News, so anyone could have come, though there obviously has to be a limit on how many could attend.]

AirDrop Is Back - Demolished Housing, New Trail. Abandoned Kayak, Skateboard Park [UPDATED]

 Some time back, not too long ago, my Air Drop stopped working between my phone and my MacBook.  I checked online but couldn't make it work.  I'd get the Blu Tooth connected both ways, but the airdrop wouldn't happen.

So lots of pics on my phone just stayed there.  I tried other work arounds.  When I plugged my phone into my computer I got a screen that wanted to download everything from my computer to my phone and there was no way I could get rid of it other than just unplugging.  

Frustrated, today I tried again.  But this time instead of searching for Blu Tooth solutions, I looked for AirDrop solutions.  I got this HelpDeskGeek page with a whole table of contents of approaches.  Quickly I found a good prospect - Open Finder on Mac.  Then Set Air Drop To Open To Anyone.  

That was the magic trick.  Somehow it had gotten switched to Open To No One.  I'm back in business and can now post some pictures here.

But there's a large backload of things I passed on - Juneteenth Festival, Gay Pride March and Festival, and a bunch of other things.  

I'm just going to focus mostly on some pics from (mainly) yesterday's bike ride to highlight changes going on.  

This first pic is from June 4th.  A new homeless camp showed up on the 'off-ramp' from the Campbell Creek bike trail to Dowling.  

About a week ago, it had been reduced to this:

    

And yesterday, it looked like this:

Yesterday's turnaround point was the AARP fitness spot just south of Taku Lake.  

There's construction going on down the trail there (toward Dimond).  Someone recently told me they're building a skateboard park.  

Also heading out yesterday, I noticed someone kayaking in the creek, but there were trees around and I didn't see too much, except it was a red kayak.  On my way back, the kayak was blocking the bike trail.  

Didn't look good.  Nobody was around. But I figure if they got the kayak out, the people got out too, but not sure why they left their stuff there.  That's an old restaurant in the background that they've been slowly working on, including adding landscaping.  It says Creekside something on the other side.   Behind me is Peanut Farm and Arctic Roadrunner.  

Meanwhile, just down the block from our house, I discovered at the beginning of the ride that an old house was demolished.  It's been there at least since the 70s.  It was there two days ago, but this is all that was left yesterday:

The tape says something about asbestos.  It was on a double lot.  Presumably Anchorage will get some new housing.  A single family house?  A duplex?  Two houses?  Stand by.  

Other changes.  I noticed a bike headed up the hill near the forestation at Campbell Airstrip Road at Tudor a week ago.  I decided to see what was there.  It's a wide new gravel path that goes up, south of Tudor.  It starts not too far from Tudor but gets further into the woods.  Then there's a long downhill to this long bridge across what I'm guessing is sometimes wetlands.  

[UPDATED July 16, 2023:   It's called the Chugach Foothills Connector.  Steve Johnson left comment with this link to a Muni page describing the project and the ribbon cutting will take place July 23,2023 at the bridge in the picture below:

"The event will take place on July 26th, 2023 from 4pm to 5pm. If you are driving to the event parking is available at the Benny Benson School's Parking Lot. The rib​bon cutting will take place on the boardwalk in the center of the trail.​"

Thanks, Steve] 

Past the bridge, with some bear poop to remind me this wasn't a place a lot of people went before this trail was put in.  

Then it veers back toward Tudor and the power line right way.  It ends where that power line is.  There's a small path that continues.  And the new trail turns left into a housing area just past where Tudor curves into Muldoon.   There's a big sign that says Neeson Construction is doing this project, but all the paper work was about Alaska employee rights, not anything about this trail and whether it will stay gravel or eventually get paved.   I came out onto Muldoon at Regal Mountain Drive.

And yesterday I got my summer (starting April) biking total up to 603 km.  60% of my target of 1000 again this summer.  

[UPDATE July 16, 2023  below is the map of the project:

For sharper version visit the Muni website