Taking Advantage of My Air Drop Working Again

 My phone asked me to log in with my Apple ID today.  On a whim, I tried Air Drop after and it worked.  So, in what I hope is a long window, I'll put up some pictures.  

Grow North is the farm in Mountain View where the Refugee Assistance and Immigration Service of Anchorage Catholic Social services grows food for the summer and operates a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) with once a week pick ups and sells fresh vegetables and some baked goods as well during the week.  You can't get much fresher food in Anchorage unless it's from your own garden.  

The garlic and the picture of the farm are from last week.  

This week's box includes:

• Classic cauliflower,
• Crunchy kohlrabi
• Unique malabar spinach,
• Tasty bok choi,
• And some lovely sage for the herb of the week!

From the email that CSA subscribers get:

"Malabar spinach seems like it would retain similarities to that of regular spinach. The plant uses the name spinach in it, yet the ironic part of that the two could not be more different. Malabar spinach grows on a vine, granting it the nickname of vine spinach, whereas regular spinach grows from the ground (like many leafy greens)."  

This Goose Lake as I rode by  The ducks hang out here because its's  spot where people feed them.

On a completely different bike ride, out past Taku Lake, they've had the big blue sign up much of the summer, but the little one just popped up.  If you can't read the small sign (which I'm guessing you can't) it says, "We are upgrading the skatepark!"  It also says the construction budget is $1.2 million. I know we've had inflation over the years, but really?  $1.2 million for curved concrete?  Curious how much profit the contractor, also listed as "Street Maintenance and Grindline Skate Parks LLC" is making.  I realize they may be doing more than just the skateboard park, but it would be nice if there was a watchdog group which gathered all the data on summer construction projects and evaluated how the money was spent.  

In other construction news, the ACS fiber optic team was out on Crescent in Geneva Woods today.  We're on the Lake Otis side, but all this area is getting wired.  That bright orange wire is popping up all around the neighborhoods.  

And it's mushroom season.  Here are some making appearances in my yard.

Don't have time now to research these.  The orange one is an amanita - hallucinogenic and al over Anchorage now.  It can also make you really sick.  Not planning on eating any, though I'm waiting for the King Boletes and the Shaggy Manes.  

But I have started eating the olive bread I made last night.  It came out well.  The one in the back is a dill experiment.  (We got lots of fresh dill from Grow North Farm last week.)

Meanwhile J got off the phone this evening with her long time friend (does 45 years count as long time?) who lives on the Haleakala foothills in Maui.  Her house is far from Lahaina, but there is also a fire up in that neighborhood as well and she's been evacuated and is staying with friends.  If I recall right, Maui has its share of eucalyptus trees, and their oil burns easily.  May the fire be quickly extinguished and your house survive.  

AIFF2022: Saw Two Excellent Films - The Wind And The Reckoning and The King Of Kings

 There were film festivals in the past when I was up until 3am writing about that night's films.  But the Festival is reduced this year after two years of mostly virtual festival and my coverage is also reduced.  So tonight I'm just going to give brief comments on the two films we saw.  They deserve more, but this will have to do.   

The Wind and Reckoning featured gun battles with Hawaiian backdrop.  It's Native Hawaiian actors spoke to each other in Hawaiian on screen in this adaptation of a book written in Hawaiian by one of the characters in the story, that was only recently translated into English and then more time to be able to make the film.  Essentially we see what I took as civil war veterans rounding up Native Hawaiians suspected to having leprosy to be sent to the leper colony on Molokai.  The film focuses on one family whose home is invaded in the middle of the night and how they fought back.  It was a narrative based on the written account.  

The picture above was before the film when some of the cast members did an opening chant.  Aaron Leggett, President and Chair of the Eklutna Tribal Council (with the beaded sash) was there as was Mayor Dave Bronson, who said a few words about the importance of the values shown in the film.  I'm not sure who wrote that for him, but he left shortly after the film began.  That's a pity because he might have learned a lot from both the film and the discussion afterward.  The man in the middle is Leo and he's working on making Hawaii an independent nation as it was before the US took over by force in 1893. He handed out these flyers for people who want more information.

Ko'olau, if you haven't guessed, is the hero in the film along with his wife.  

The second film The King of Kings was a documentary by Harriet Marin Jones who first learned about her grandfather, Edward Jones when she was 17 on the way to university in the United States.  And what an amazing story it is.  Edward Jones' father was a well-to-do Black Baptist preacher in Mississippi who moved his family to Chicago in 1919 after the KKK showed up at his house.  There he had some odd jobs while going to Northwestern University, but transferred to Howard University to avoid the discrimination he felt at Northwestern.  When he returned to Chicago and got into the numbers business - what was called "Policy."  For a nickel people in the poor Black community could buy the hope of money for a decent dinner and for a few even getting rich.  Jones got rich and stayed pretty much off the radar of the white mob because his money business was in the Black community.  Again, to avoid discrimination, he moved his family to Paris, but then back to Chicago as WW II begins.  He moved the family again, this time to Mexico.  

Marin's family history becomes a wild tale about the richest Black man in the US, and one of the richest men in the US.  Essentially, his illegal business - running a numbers game = became legal much later when the State took it over and called it a lottery.  

Marin came to the festival from France and answered questions after the film.  Aside from the incredible story, I was also taken by how she put the film together - particularly the use of animation of photos.  Not animating the people, but how the pictures were animated in relation to each other - almost like a moving collage.  It was unique and added greatly to the telling of the story.  Here's more on Jones and the film maker from the Block Club Chicago.

There was one more film staring at 9pm - well later because the discussions after the first two films went way over time (and it was worth it) - but as much as I'd have liked to stay, I needed to get to bed at a reasonable time tonight.  

Both films tonight continue a theme of bringing stories of outsiders as told by the outsiders themselves.  

Back To Anchorage - Realizing Our Wetlands Abundance

The Kealia Pond National Wildlife Reserve was near where we stayed in Maui and we had the chance to explore it while we were there.  It's about 700 acres if I recall right.

But as we flew into Anchorage yesterday, I was reminded of yet another reason why I live here -We have wetlands, bogs, etc. that seem to go on forever.  That's not an invitation on my part for developers and manufacturers to destroy them.  It's partly a prayer of thanks that the predominant image of Alaska around the world is 'a giant icebox.'

Here's a view as our plane flew around across the inlet waiting for a time to land.

It was a very grey day, but it was in the 50's (F) - continuing a warm spell since September.

At Kealia Pond, they say that only 10% of  Hawaiian wetlands are left.  Probably this picture shows more than all the wetlands Hawaii ever had.

What if Alaska were the same size as Hawaii?  Would our habitat destruction be similar?

My first visit to Hawaii was ia quick overnight in Honolulu in 1969, followed by nine weeks in Hilo working at a Peace Corps training program in 1970.  The first trip to Maui was a couple years later.  The changes are staggering - the development everywhere, the traffic.  And who gets the benefits?  People raised in Hawaii often can no longer afford to live there.  Hawaii, once a tropical paradise, is now 'an investment opportunity."

Alaska is big enough and the biggest development is remote enough that most people don't see the impacts.  But in Hawaii it's obvious.  And tourism is probably now the biggest culprit.

Another view just before landing.

And here we were on the tarmac headed to the gate.

Some Morning Biking Pictures As I Get Ready For This Morning's Ride

The Pilani Highway, that goes from near the airport to Kihei, has a separate bike path - there's a painted path, grass, then a paved path, well away from the cars.  And I can just ride off for 30 minutes no real interruptions and then turn around.









 So that's my route now.  Yesterday it felt so good after 40 minutes I didn't want to turn even.  But I did.

But Friday, my ride was interrupted.  I had a serious flat - a couple of big thorns.

Calls to the rental place.  I had to drive there, get a bike rack, go home and get the bike, take it in, switch out to a new bike.

But now I'm back in the groove.  Some shots from yesterday.

The West Maui mountains from the bike trail.



This car was parked here on Thursday with the emergency lights blinking.  I didn't get this far on Friday before the flat.

Saturday the gas tank fall was gone, and presumably the gas, and someone seems to have gone through the contents inside and scattered a lot of the papers outside the car.



 Near the National Guard are these 'billboards' for Motocross.

And there's this memorial, but I couldn't find a name.  

So I'm off now for today's ride, before it gets too hot.

More Wetlands Pics - Let's Keep Some Balance As Our National Soap Opera Unfolds

So there's a point on the boardwalk at Kealia Pond National Wildlife Reserve, where the pond opens out toward the ocean.  But there's a mound of sand that blocks the pond water from just draining out.  Or the sea water from pouring in.



Here's what the sign says about this spot.



















If you click on it, you should be able to read it clearly.  But here are the important points:

"Here Kealia Pond is trapped by a sand plug that separates pond and bay.  When the pond is at its peak, the plug is breached and water flows through both ways.  Hawaiians noticed the abundant life in the ponds connected to the sea.  They enhanced this connection in their fishponds, raosing fish, snails, shrimp, and seaweed for food."

As you can see, the pond isn't likely to breach the plug any time soon.  But the surf manages to.  The top picture the sand is dry.  Here are some other pictures when the surf breaches the plug.

Here you can see ripples caused by the sea water entering the pond.

Today when I was there, the surf was higher than earlier and so water is coming in from the sea.  But there was also a breeze from the pond side so there are ripples on the pond water toward the plug.  

Ibis At Kealia Pond National Wildlife Reserve

I got out a little earlier today (about 7:20am) and biked the highway toward Lahaina til it connected with the main highway, then turned back and stopped at the Kealia Pond Reserve.  First, I have to apologize.  In the interest of packing light, I left my telephoto lens at home.  Second, I've decided to break up this Reserve visit into more than one post - there's no need to try to cram everything into one post.  There was lots to catch the eye and ear and brain.  So this one will concentrate on the ibis - which I'm assuming is the white faced ibis, though it's not the breeding season so the white face isn't out.




From the Fish and Wildlife Service:

"White-faced ibis
Most distinguishable by its long down-curved bill. As many as 4 individuals have been observed at the refuge during summer, possibly not migrating to their mainland breeding sites."

Well, you can't see the long down-curved bill in the picture above, so look closely below you can see the beaks of a couple of birds.

This one just gives you a sense of the location of the pond.












Here's a sign about this reserve that is pretty disturbing.

The disturbing part?

"Today, less than 10 percent of all Hawaiian wetlands remain."

Think about it.  Wetlands are important habitat for birds, insects, fish.  And they are water gets filtered.  They also are how nature protects the land during flooding - so as we think about Hurricane Florence, I'm sure that much of the flooding happened because wetlands along the coast as well as along the rivers have long been turned into farmland, houses, factories, and other development.

October 1 - Day German Move On Danish Jews Thwarted By Georg Duckwitz German Ambassador To Denmark

LA Times has a bit of history for this date.  It's the story of the German ambassador to Denmark who helped get most Danish Jews to Sweden just before the Nazis were to send them to concentration camps.  From the article:

On Sept. 19, Duckwitz learned from Best that the operation was imminent. He wrote in his diary, “Now I know what I have to do.” When he was told by a fellow sympathetic official that he would risk Gestapo wrath if he were caught trying to countermand Hitler, Duckwitz responded he would do whatever it took to stop the deportation.
The next day, Duckwitz contacted two Swedish diplomats and traveled to Stockholm where he met with Prime Minister Albin Hansson, who agreed to propose to the Germans that his neutral nation would intern the Danish Jews. The Nazis didn’t even bother to respond.
On Sept. 28, Best received the go-ahead to launch the roundup, planned for Oct. 1, Rosh Hashana. Duckwitz immediately telephoned Danish political leaders. One of them later recalled that when they met, Duckwitz looked pale with shame and shock.
“Now the disaster is at hand,” Duckwitz said. Ships were waiting in the harbor to take the Jews to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. “Those of your poor Jewish countrymen who get caught by the Gestapo will [be] … transported to an unknown fate.”

Most were ferried across the channel between Denmark and Sweden by all sorts of vessels where Swedish officials took them in.  

Over the next few days, millions of Danes would shelter, protect and smuggle their Jewish neighbors to Sweden. They were delivered to the harbor in free taxis and hospital ambulances. Fishermen and ship captains made more than 700 trips across the Oresund. Duckwitz had tipped off his Swedish contacts, who were waiting to assist the refugees. And in a final critical action, he convinced German harbormasters he knew to ensure the coast guard sent out no patrols.

But this story, celebrating this Oct. 1, 1943 rescue mission is not just a history lesson.  The author wants to be sure readers get the more universal message.

Many ask themselves whether it is possible to stand up to pervasive evil. The Danes showed that when a nation — from the king to the taxi drivers and fishermen — decide they will not permit atrocities in their midst, even the Nazis could be hamstrung. And Georg Duckwitz, who put his career and even his life on the line, offers an object lesson on how one person can save thousands.

I'd note, as well, that we should look at each individual we've labeled "the enemy" carefully.  Some of them don't belong in that category.  Find them and let them help.

Meanwhile, life goes on.

Happy Birthday Dad From Maui

It's been, this is somewhat shocking to me, 30 years since my Dad died.  But today is his birthday and I celebrated by going for a swim this morning before it got too hot.  What would we talk about if he were here?   Definitely the Kavanaugh hearings.  Our kids were teenagers when he died, but he spent much of his last month with us in Anchorage.  He loved being a grandfather too.  So we would talk about them and their children.

We'd talk about how long it's been since we've been to Hawaii, how much it's been built up since the last time we were here.  But also how wonderful the water is, and the local fresh food.

Yesterday, Dad, we went beach scouting.  We decided that Kamaole I would be a good place to try out the snorkeling.  It was hot and windy when we parked ourselves on the sand.

There were two sets of fins and two facemarks and snorkels in the condo we're staying at.  I fiddled with the straps so it would be tight on my face and went into the warm (but a little cooler than the air) water.  I don't remember, Dad, Hawaiian water being so warm, but I've always ever been here between December and March.  The water was very clear and I swam around looking for something other than just a smooth sandy bottom.  A small school of small but colorful fish swam nearby.  The water felt great, floating there felt great.  After a while I decided to head back to J on the beach.  But I'd drifted a ways and decided to swim back rather than walk on the beach.  

That's when I saw the sea turtle up ahead of me.  The water wasn't deep.  I could have stood up.  It was coming straight toward me.  Maybe three or four feet long.  It kept coming my way.  I've snorkeled where there were sea turtles before, but only in places further out from the shore and where I'd been told they were likely to be.  But here it was, still swimming straight at me, a foot or so below me.  I tried to move to the side and it went right by.  

Wow!  I wish I could show you a picture I took, but I don't have an underwater camera.  And without the camera I was totally there with the turtle, not worrying about getting a good picture.  Same kind of thrill as a close encounter with a moose like I had last week.  

Later an old friend of J's - who lives on Maui -  came by.  We snacked on two kinds of poke (in the bowl lower left) we'd just bought as well as star fruit.   And the star fruit was, I realize now, a prelude for what were going to see.*  

.  

As the sun set we shifted to the lanai to catch up on all that's happening in each others' lives.

If you look closely, you can see the windmills on the hill on the right.  

And then the stars came out.  Well, I'm pretty sure they're the planets.  

Time and Date lists the planets we can see tonight  in Maui (and I'm assuming last night wasn't too different) but I'm not sure which planet is which in the picture below.

The camera picked up three.  Venus is supposed to be "Fairly good visibility" and sets at 7:40 (tonight).  This picture was taken last night at at about 7:55pm (last night.) (My camera seems to be on PST and about 20 minutes fast.)  So maybe Venus is the one on the horizon.  Mars is supposed to be "Perfect visibility" and set (tomorrow) at 1:51am, so it could be the one on top.  And I'm guessing the middle one is Jupiter which is "Fairly good visibility" and is supposed to set (tonight) at 8:47pm.  If it's clear enough tonight, I'll track them more carefully.  There is sun but also a lot of clouds now.  

[UPDATE 7:49 pm:  The light on the horizon is probably a boat based on what I see tonight.]

Then we went for a good Thai dinner and lots of conversation.

Dad, you didn't follow the stars that closely, but your grandson does and maybe he'll see this and let us know.  And as long as I'm talking to my Dad here, I can also fantasize that he might be up there with the planets and the stars.  

*Ok, planets aren't stars.  But then stars don't look like slices of star fruit either.  

Just Spent My First Daylight Hours In Maui Watching Senate Hearings, But Reminded That Universe Will Continue Unaffected

We got in late last night.  I didn't set an alarm for this morning, but I woke up early enough to only miss the first half hour - much of which was repeated during breaks.

But as important as the Kavanaugh hearings may be to many of us, really, the universe isn't paying any attention.  My evidence?

We finally took off about 7pm last night from Seattle as the sun was starting to set.  We were headed southwest to Maui so we had a sunset backdrop for a long way.  The picture above - well it really looked like that from my window seat.  The sun and the rest of the universe are oblivious to what we do here on earth.

There’s still a fiery glow along the horizon at 9pm Seattle time (7pm Hawaii time).

These are just a few examples of the changing sunset over the first two or more hours of our flight, though the first picture is by far my favorite.


And as I look out over the cloud covered ocean, the sky and the water seem unaffected by the Senate Hearings as well.

Though here on earth, the activities of humans are affecting the oceans and the wind patterns and how the clouds move and how long they hang over places while they drop their load of water back to earth.  Who gets on the Supreme Court and the decisions they make about climate change, about regulations on carbon, and about various things - like campaign financing and gerrymandering - that affect who gets elected to Congress will make a difference on our planet.

Long Delays at Seatac

We landed with a thump and soon we were stopped.  In line, waiting for other arriving planes to  get gates, for planes to take off, and finally for a gate.  It was about 45 minutes sitting on the tarmac when we arrive this morning.  We had a long wait til our connecting flight to Maui, so it was sort of ok.  Except the long layover was so we could catch the train in to Seattle to see our daughter and granddaughter.  But we still had four hours of bliss.  But this post is about the delays at Seatac.

When we got back to the airport and onto the plane, we left the gate on time.  But it was another 45 minutes before we took off.  But we made it to Maui on our scheduled time.  

Here’s a plane that just arrived crossing the take-off runway.  

And here’s part of the line-up of planes behind us once we got to the head of the line.  There are four in the picture and there were four more behind the Alaska plane on the left.  

The pilot said there’s a runway being repaired which is most of the delay.

I'm not complaining, just noting.  We still had a wonderful time with the little one and now we're sweating in warm and humid Maui.

Learning The News By Seeing Who Visits What Post On My Blog

A post on the Earth Null School has suddenly started getting lots of hits from people in Korea.  So I decided to see if I could figure out why.

Earth Null School has a dynamic map of the world showing wind, currents, air,  among other things. [Click on EARTH in lower left to get options.]  So I went to the site and looked around.  You can see the hurricane headed toward Hawaii.  And then I spun the globe, so to speak, and saw two more little swirling balls - one off Japan and one headed to Korea.

Japan is the island with the orange weather pattern.  And to the left of that is a yellow ball at the southern tip of Korea.  If you go to the Earth Null School page, all these wind patterns are moving.

Accu-weather says:

"After grazing southern Japan, Severe Tropical Storm Soulik is on track to sweep across the Korean Peninsula through Friday.
As AccuWeather predicted, Soulik reached the equivalent of a Category 3 major hurricane in the Atlantic or eastern Pacific basins at its peak. Soulik has since weakened to a severe tropical storm."

And here's a Washington Post story on all three storms - Hawaii, Korea, and Japan.

"Three tropical cyclones are lined up in the Pacific Ocean, and one, Hurricane Lane, may hit Hawaii in a few days. The other two, Typhoons Soulik and Cimaron, will crash into east Asia, directly affecting South Korea and Japan later this week.
All three storms contain winds of at least 74 mph, indicating hurricane strength (typhoons and hurricanes are the same kind of storm, but have different names depending on the section of ocean they traverse). Typhoons Soulik and Cimaron are on a collision course with the Asian continent, and effects from torrential rain, strong winds, and dangerous surf appear unavoidable"

 I'm assuming that as Koreans are preparing for some weather, the word got out that you could see it coming toward them at Earth Null School and google offered them my old post.  That's purely speculation.