How Close Are You To Corona Virus?

My daughter told me that J and I had been in the Seattle Airport the day the first US corona virus victim arrived from China.  (He's doing fine now.)

And today I learned that the  plane with US citizens being evacuated from Wuhan, the center of the outbreak, stopped in Anchorage on the way to their destination in California.

These two bits of information don't cause me to worry or run out and buy a face mask, but they do highlight that in today's world we aren't as far away from things as we sometimes think.  And if we consider that the flu pandemic of 1918 and 1919, it seems to have spread around the world in an era when airplanes were small and transoceanic passengers went by ship.

At the moment, we know little about this illness.  Here's what the CDC (US Center for Disease Control) says about risk assessment:

"Risk Assessment
Outbreaks of novel virus infections among people are always of public health concern. The risk from these outbreaks depends on characteristics of the virus, including whether and how well it spreads between people, the severity of resulting illness, and the medical or other measures available to control the impact of the virus (for example, vaccine or treatment medications).
This is a serious public health threat. The fact that this virus has caused severe illness and sustained person-to-person spread in China is concerning, but it’s unclear how the situation in the United States will unfold at this time.
The risk to individuals is dependent on exposure. At this time, some people will have an increased risk of infection, for example healthcare workers caring for 2019-nCoV patients and other close contacts. For the general American public, who are unlikely to be exposed to this virus, the immediate health risk from 2019-nCoV is considered low."  (emphasis added)

The CDC site gives a lot more information you might find interesting, such as:

"Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are common in many different species of animals, including camels, cattle, cats, and bats. Rarely, animal coronaviruses can infect people and then spread between people such as with MERS and SARS.

CDC and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are continuing to conduct enhanced entry screening of passengers who have been in Wuhan within the past 14 days at 5 designated U.S. airports. Given travel out of Wuhan has been shut down, the number of passengers who meet this criteria are dwindling.

Going forward, CBP officials will monitor for travelers with symptoms compatible with 2019-nCoV infection and a travel connection with China and will refer them to CDC staff for evaluation at all 20 U.S. quarantine stations."

Of course, screening travelers requires travelers to be forthcoming about where they have been and whether they've had any symptoms.

Meanwhile, while you worry about coronavirus, remember to look both ways before crossing the street, put your phone away while you're driving, and follow all the common rules that will prevent you from getting hurt or sick or from dying from more common every day risks.

From the National Safety Council:

• Unintentional injuries are the #1 cause of death among people ages 1 to 44
• Motor vehicle crashes and drowning consistently rank as top causes of unintentional death in this age group
• Males 35-44 are nearly three times more likely to die in a motor vehicle crash than females
• 97% to 99% of injuries are caused by our own errors and mistakes

Reading On The Bus, Five Modes Of Transport Yesterday

Like the other school days in San Francisco, we left with the kids at 7am to catch the bus.  We got them settled and took the bus back.




Lots of the San Francisco bus stops have electronic monitors that tell you pretty accurately how long it will be for  the next two buses arrive.

I took this picture because of the woman reading on the bus.  That's fairly uncommon nowadays.  Most people are busy with their cell phones.  How many screens can you see in this picture?  (I see five, not counting the guy with the earbuds who had just put his away.)

I decided to blur the face of the woman looking right at me.  I learned last year in an OLÉ class on photo journalism that one benefit (for photographers) of taking pictures with your cell phone is that people tend not to pay attention.  But she seems to have figured it out.  And I don't know think people should have their pictures 'stolen' if they don't want it to happen.  So I blurred her somewhat.  She then started to do her eye makeup.

Next was BART to SFO.  There are lots of places, it seems, where there are escalators up, but not down.  With my tricky knee and a suitcase and backpack, that was slow.  And I couldn't find the elevator.   If you click on the image below, you can see it much more clearly.  These are the email messages I got from Alaska Airlines (in chronological order):

• Your flight is on time
• Your gate has changed
• Your flight is delayed

The delay turned out to be nearly an hour.  That seems to happen a lot out of SFO.   In Seattle it seemed like the cloud cover was down to about 30 feet when we landed at SEATAC and snow was blowing horizontally.

Fortunately, our two roll on suitcases were already coming onto the baggage carousel as we got there and the snow wasn't coming down either.





We got to the Link light rail station at the airport where an employee was telling people the train was no longer going past Pioneer Square.  To go further you had to get off and transfer to another train.  But that's where we were getting off anyway.

This construction began January 4. They're adding new lines and you can find out more here.










Then we walked down the hill a few blocks to the ferry terminal.  There's been construction there, it seems, forever.  I told J I'd take both suitcases up the elevator if she took the steps and got the tickets.  We were getting very close to departure time and they usually shut off the walk on passengers five minutes before the ferry leave.  But there was no elevator to be seen.  Grrrrrr.  As I start to haul my suitcase up while being careful not to move in a way that would cause pain in my knee, a young man reached out to help me carry it up.  I thanked him and pointed him to J who was just ahead of me.  By the time I got to the ticket booth, J had our tickets and we managed to get the 4:15 ferry.

It felt good to sit down and look out the window with the part of the Seattle skyline that includes the Space Needle, not to mention the reflections in the glass.

Finally, on the other side, our son-in-law was waiting and took J's suitcase and we walked to the market where our daughter and granddaughter were waiting.  They told us the elevator was in a new place now.   We decided that we'd just all get something from their take out offerings and eat in their modest dining space.

Today I walked with my daughter and granddaughter to her school.  Saturday she has a birthday, which is why we stopped here on the way home.

Thanksgiving On Bainbridge Island

Hoping everyone had a good holiday with family and friends.  

Tax, Snaps, Nast, And Terminal N -New Addition, And A Funny

I'm trying to finish up tax stuff to take to the accountant so he knows how much of a check we need to send in with our extension.  I hate doing this.  Not because I don't want to pay my taxes, but it's just so tedious.  I'd so love just a percentage of income, no deductions, get rid of all this crazy paperwork.  It would be much fairer to everyone and corporations wouldn't be able to get tax deductions when their employees travel first class and stay in fancy resorts on business and they can deduct legal expenses, though the citizens suing them as individuals cannot.

I've got about ten draft posts waiting for reviewing and editing, but I need to get the taxes out by tomorrow, so here are a few pics.  No serious reading.  Oh, and one joke I saw on Twitter.  (Yes, Twitter is an incredible boon to procrastinators.)

I planted some snapdragon seeds before we left for San Francisco and carefully covered them in plastic so they wouldn't dry out while we were gone and now they are up.  Hoping to show you beautiful flowers in a few months.

And nasturtiums too.

When we got off the plane in Seattle on the way home Thursday, I was confused.  I knew we were in Terminal N, but nothing looked right.  I should have been suspicious already when we pulled up to Gate 18.  Terminal N didn't have 18 gates.  

Well, now it does.  The new edition is now open.  You can see the (is seamly the opposite of seamless) gap between the old and new parts of the the terminal.  Dark floor is the old.   The train still doesn't go to Terminal C yet.  

I almost forgot the joke.  Well, maybe it's for real, but it's funny

I was applying for Australian citizenship and the interviewer asked " Do you have any criminal history?"

I said "No, is that still required?"

— Kevin Carter (@wapimaskwa69) April 6, 2019

"No section of the above property shall be sold, conveyed, leased to, or occupied by a person or persons other than of the Caucasian race, except that a domestic servant of persons then residing upon said property shall be allowed hereon in connection with his employment."

I'd first met Karen at the swimming pool a couple of years ago when my granddaughter was having a swimming lesson and Karen was swimming.  We hit it off right away - but I suspect she has this way of charming people.

We met again last year at the Bainbridge Island High School protest.

And now she was speaking at the Bainbridge Library.

She started off talking about finding a water damaged photo album at a gathering of family members after a funeral.  An aunt had been on the couch watching news about a fire on tv.  What she didn't realize until the fire fighters got into her room, that it was her house that was on fire.  And that's how the album got damaged.  Karen took it to someone she knew and they were able to get many of the pictures digitized and printed again.

And that set Karen on a quest to learn more about her family - most of whom were in the Virginia and North Carolina area.

Karen had gotten to the Seattle area with the military and her husband.

When her dad died, she spent time in Connecticut going through his things and doing research to discover how her family got to Connecticut.




And when she finally got back to the Seattle area, she took a class on (I'm not sure exactly whether it was genealogy in general or geared specifically to African-American history).

In any case, she got started researching the African-American history of Kitsap County and Bainbridge Island.

I have to admit that I was a bit surprised that there was much African-American history on Bainbridge Island.  One of my problems with Bainbridge is the relative lack of diversity.  But the military brought African-Americans to Kitsap County after WW II.   Joe Louis even fought on Bainbridge Island as part of the opening of the Town and Country Market in 1957.

The event was co-sponsored by the library and the Bainbridge Historical Museum where Karen is doing lots of her research.  So I went by the museum the next day and found her with materials spread all over.

She's also getting into Native American history.  Seems these folks kept moving west and thought they could just build wherever they wanted, regardless of whether people were already using the land.

This chronicle attempts to be fair to the Indians, but it's written by the victors and really doesn't present the Indians' side of the story.

Here are much more detailed accounts.  The first one from someone who was there.  It seems clear that there was plenty of warning before the Indians attacked in what is called the White River Massacre by the whites.  And a number of the settlers left.

http://themossback.tripod.com/indianwar/wrmassacre.htm   These are very extensive and detailed first hand accounts by whites of what they called the White River massacre.

Here's a more general account, but gives more context and attempts to view things from a native perspective.  https://omittedhistory.wordpress.com/2016/01/27/the-puget-sound-war-1855-1856/  Here's a part:

"As a precursor, the Native American tribes of the area consisted of the Nisqually, Muckleshoot, Puyallup, and the Klickitat peoples. The war itself was triggered by The Treaty of Medicine Creek, penned by Washington Territory Governor Isaac Stevens in 1854. The American-favored treaty granted about 2.24 million acres of land to the United States in exchange for the creation of three reservations, cash payments over twenty years, and “recognition” of traditional native fishing and hunting rights. Unfortunately, Nisqually farming land was taken as part of negotiations (Washington State Historical Society)."

Getting into the 20th Century, Karen showed me this lease agreement to buy land in Port Blakely Bay on Bainbridge Island.  She highlighted two parts in yellow.  Restriction 7, I'll just write out here for people who have trouble reading the image:

"No section of the above property shall be sold, conveyed, leased to, or occupied by a person or persons other than of the Caucasian race, except that a domestic servant of persons then residing upon said property shall be allowed hereon in connection with his employment."

This is dated November 1943.

From a 2006 NY Times article about a Virginia case three years earlier where the seller used this sort of language in the deed of his house to deny a sale to an African-American family.  

"The Supreme Court ruled against racially restrictive covenants in 1948, and they were outlawed by the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968. But because so many of them remain in deeds and neighborhood bylaws, some states, including California, have moved to eliminate them. Advocates for their removal reason that the restrictions, even if illegal, provide justification for subtle racism -- or, as in Mr. Matthews's case, outright discrimination. (Mr. Matthews declined to comment.)"

 This kind of discriminatory language still remains in many deeds - even in Anchorage - to this day.  In part because the procedure for changing the deeds is often difficult or impossible.  A key was to make them part of the subdivision, not the individual house.

This is the kind of thing that is meant by white privilege.  In this case whites had the 'privilege' of buying land and people of color did not, even if they had the money.  Here's a post I wrote in 2012 about  Some of My Best Friends Are Black by Tanner Colby who does a really good job of presenting a very readable history of how these covenants got started and helped lead to red-lining.

And while these clauses are no longer enforceable, people have many ways of making life harder for people of color than for whites.  I believe that people who are upset about losing those kinds of privileges make up a good part of Trump's supporters.

And talking about privilege, this week's TED Radio Hour on NPR was about luck.  The first speaker  I heard, Tina Seelig [Starts around 12:30 min in], talked about luck being about your own mental image.  But damn, she taught at Stanford, she must have had some pretty good luck to start with.  But the next ones talked about luck happening before your were born. Amy Hunter who starts around 20 minutes in.  This one is critical.   She relates luck to which zip code you're born into.  The next one was a Canadian, Mark Sutcliffe, who said being born there as a white guy was great luck. Eshauna Smith follows this up by exploring how she got out of her zip code (she didn't say it that way) while most of the other really smart kids there did not.

Well worth listening to while you're cooking, folding laundry, or waiting in line somewhere.   I'd particularly recommend listening to Hunter,   followed by Mark Sutcliffe.  And then Eshauna Smith.

Here's the whole thing.

Let's March

Seattle, where we've spent most of the month, had one of the coldest Februaries on record and including one of the snowiest.
San Francisco, where we spent part of the month, was rainy and February temps were well below normal.
And the LA Times says today that LA had its first February since they've been keeping records ( "at

least 132 years") when temperature never reached 70˚F.  The average was down from 68˚F to 61˚F.

Meanwhile Anchorage started February a little warmer than normal and ended a little colder than normal.

So, does this mean Trump is right and Climate Change is a hoax?  Weather is NOT Climate.  Weather is what happens short term.  Climate is the larger overall trends.  And Climate Change is about change.  That doesn't mean just getting warmer (though that's the overall trend).  It also means more extremes, more volatility, and changes that will affect how much water areas have, whether traditional crops will survive, whether heat and floods will change the landscapes.

Climate change is real and businesses know it and are concerned.   Only ideologues who reject science for vanity and ideology don't believe it.

But meanwhile, Let's March.  Let's enjoy this month.  Our last full day in the Seattle area is beautiful.  And I'm looking forward to getting some sunny wintertime in Anchorage tomorrow.

Seattle's NW Flower And Garden Festival

Being dependent on a ferry to get places really puts a cramp on one's outings.  We wanted to go to the Flower and Garden Show, but our granddaughter - on a week school break - had a morning program at the KidiMu that ended at 12:30pm. It's right near the ferry terminal, but fhe ferry for Seattle leaves at 12:20, which we missed, of course, and then again at 1:30pm. So we got a late start.  Catching the bus up to the convention center meant walking half a mile when the trip wasn't more than a mile.  So we walked.  (I think there were better bus options but I didn't see them when I looked.)





But we got there.  We went before in 2013.  It's a little crazy - lots of vendors selling garden related and not-so-related stuff.  (Like rain gutters with screening to keep the leaves out, and hot tubs, hazel nut shells for garden paths. )  There was lots of candy and artsy stuff as well.  But there were also lots of bulbs and tubers and potted plants for sale.

These metal and glass insects were the most dazzling things I saw for sale.  I was always a bug freak as a kid and my time in Thailand was highlighted in part by the abundance of magnificent insects, including scarab beetles like the one above.  I've included the picture below so you can get some sense of the sizes.

Our six year old enjoyed trying out the trampoline (all zipped up inside of a net).  The other part (well, besides food and winning a small pot with sprouting daffodils) was the display gardens.  These are gardens designed specifically for the show that compete for prizes.  There were 21.  It wasn't the gardens so much, but the scavenger hunt for kids.  She got a list of all the gardens and she had to find the model airplane in each garden.  A few were out in plain sight, others were a little trickier.

This one - the Herban Sanctuary - is described in the program

"You're stepping into the year 2050, with the urban center of Seattle serving as the 'sci-fi like' setting.  But rays of hope and positivity abound:  medicinal and edible plants are integrated into a planting scheme emphasizing native plant material  And resident have fully embraced clean energy, with use of solar panels and cooker.  A unique feature:  a tent that serves as a central gathering place for inspiration and healing. . . "

 "Shalimar"

"Now a UNESCO world heritage site, these splendid gardens were laid out as a Persian "paradise garden." [Now in Lahore, Pakistan]  Constructed in `1641, they are representation of an earthly utopia where humans co-exist in perfect harmony with all elements of nature."

 Meanwhile, we went from garden to garden looking for the hidden airplanes.  Some, like the one on the left, were almost invisible.  This one is a black airplane in a dark tree.  It's in the middle of the picture, but I can't even see it anymore - even when I enlarge it.  But the young one was persistent and found them all.

It's a clever way for the Show to keep kids interested while the parents and grandparents are taking in the gardens, though we got hijacked into helping find planes.

These two were from "Orchids in Balance."

"Imagining Ireland:  Myth, Magic and Mystery" featured a rainbow of primroses which had a pot of gold at the end (the bright yellow just to the right of the leprechaun house on the left.)  This one had the airplane flying out in the open on a steel frame.  And one of the creator's relatives didn't like it particularly, so he made two more much fancier model planes to fly with it.  And my plane collector was rewarded with a bit of gold from the end of the rainbow.

This dragon was part of "Mystic Garden" a beautiful Chinese style garden.  

In San Francisco's Japanese Garden we were shown a 400 year old bonsai tree.  Since San Francisco isn't nearly that old, and the Japanese garden is much younger, I asked.  It had been begun in Japan long ago and brought over much later.

So when I saw this 520 year old Alaska Yellow Cedar, it didn't make sense.  How would a Japanese gardener get such a tree 500 years ago?   It turns out, the tree is that old, but it's only been 'in captivity' we were told for a much shorter time.  It was a natural bonsai found in the wild.  It was only after we left for home that I began thinking about people digging up 500 year old trees in the wild to display as bonsais.  Are people really allowed to go into forests and mountains and dig up these ancient trees?  Do they need permits?  Are there limits on how many can be "captured"?

Deicing As We Leave Seattle's Snow For San Francisco's Rain

There was about 6 or 7 inches of snow this morning when we headed to Seatac.  Someone had plowed a snowy/icy path along the sidewalk and the walk back to the airport wasn't too bad.

A lot of flights had been cancelled, but our was scheduled to leave on time.  But then they had to deice.  I had a pretty good view.  So here's a minimally edited video of part of the process happening outside my window.  (As I was editing, I realized that often my purpose is not to just cut to the most dramatic few seconds here and there.  Rather I figure someone who knows a lot more than I about deicing (that would be anyone who knows anything at all about deicing) might get more out of my leaving most of the footage in.)





From Wikipedia:

On the ground, when there are freezing conditions and precipitation, de-icing an aircraft is crucial. Frozen contaminants cause critical control surfaces to be rough and uneven, disrupting smooth air flow and greatly degrading the ability of the wing to generate lift, and increasing drag. This situation can cause a crash. If large pieces of ice separate when the aircraft is in motion, they can be ingested in engines or hit propellers and cause catastrophic failure. Frozen contaminants can jam control surfaces, preventing them from moving properly. Because of this potentially severe consequence, de-icing is performed at airports where temperatures are likely to be around 0 °C (32 °F). 

In flight, droplets of supercooled water often exist in stratiform and cumulus clouds. They form into ice when they are struck by the wings of passing airplanes and abruptly crystallize. This disrupts airflow over the wing, reducing lift, so aircraft that are expected to fly in such conditions are equipped with a de-icing system.
De-icing techniques are also employed to ensure that engine inlets and various sensors on the outside of the aircraft are clear of ice or snow. 

Chemical de-icing[edit]
De-icing fluids consisting of propylene glycol (PG) and additives are widely used by airlines for de-icing aircraft.[2]:43 Ethylene glycol (EG) fluids are still in use for aircraft de-icing in some parts of the world because it has a lower operational use temperature (LOUT) than PG. However, PG is more common because it is less toxic than ethylene glycol.[3]:2–29

Alaska Airlines' blog also has a post on deicing.  

When we took off, the wing was green.  It was its normal color when we landed in San Francisco where the sun was out as we landed.  But when we got out the BART station downtown, it was raining.  But when i'm with my grandkids, the sun is always shining.




I'd also like to point to an article in the Alaska Airlines Magazine for February 2019.  It was about how CEO Brad Tilden spent a week shadowing employees in Alaska.  Yes, putting it in the magazine is hype, but the fact that he was on the ground (and in the air) with employees doing their jobs with them says good things about him and the airline.  He wasn't just in Anchorage, he also flew out to Dutch Harbor on PenAir.  And in Anchorage he did a night shift.  You can see the piece here.

Seattle Readies For Snow Storm, We Decide To Get Closer To Airport

We have tickets for tomorrow back to San Francisco for more grandkid duty.  But our daughter warned us a storm was coming.

..WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 4 PMPST SATURDAY...
* WHAT...Heavy snow expected. Total snow accumulations of 4 to 6inches expected. Local snowfall accumulations of 8 inches. Northto northeast winds will increase late tonight and Saturday to 15to 30 mph with some local gusts to 45 mph. The wind will likelyreduce visibility at times due to blowing snow, especially nearshorelines of the inland waters.
* WHERE...Portions of northwest and west central Washington,including Seattle, Everett, Tacoma, Bremerton, Bellevue, NorthBend, Redmond, Kent, Port Angeles, Sequim, Oak Harbor, and MountVernon.
* WHEN...From Noon today to 4 PM PST Saturday. The heaviestsnowfall accumulations for most of the area will occur between 3PM this afternoon and 10 PM this evening.
* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...A period of 2 inch per hour snowfallaccumulations is likely during todays late afternoon and eveningcommute in the Tacoma, Everett, Seattle, and Bremerton area.Travel is likely to become very difficult. Areas of blowing snowcould contribute to reduced visibility late tonight intoSaturday.

The island is a 35 minute ferry ride from downtown Seattle.  Then it's a short walk to the train, and about 40 more minutes to the airport.  And when storms hit the island, trees fall onto power lines and people lose power for days sometimes.  And they said the ferry can't dock if there's no power.

But the ferry only comes once an hour so last time we had to get the 7:05am ferry to get to a 10:45am flight.  (The 7:55am ferry probably would have gotten us there on time, but if anything went wrong on the way we'd have missed our flight.)

Snow falling as we depart ferry,  barely see Seattle buildings

So we decided we should get a room near the airport for tonight.  But that was easier said than done.  Everything in the SEATAC area was full.  I finally got a room at Motel 6.  We could check in at 3pm.

Last night the snow wasn't going to start for real until about 3pm so we decided on the 1:15pm ferry.  But we decided if we were packed we could go for the 12:20 ferry.  And then we learned the advisory had been moved up to snow beginning at noon.  So as we were walking to the ferry, the first flakes began.

We walked up to the Link (light rail) station past Pioneer Square.  If you click on these pics you can see the snow.  They were big flake and coming down seriously.

As Alaskans we take all this snow preparation as a little strange, but they don't have the plowing equipment and they don't have snow tires or studs, and there are lots of hills.




The train station was a surprise.  It looked like everyone had decided to take the afternoon off to get home before the snow got bad.  The buses and trains were packed.  After not being able to get on the first two trains, we got a little pushier for the third.

This was after things got a little better.







By the time we got to the SeaTac station, the snow was sticking on the side streets and sidewalk, but
it was less than a mile walk so we enjoyed the snow.  We've reduced our luggage to one carryon and two backpacks.  (We've heard about but haven't watched Marie Kondo.  We've generally traveled light enough so we can walk with our stuff if we have to, but for this week in San Francisco we've rethought anything that had any weight.  Here's the view from our no frills hotel room - but there is heat, to compensate for the gaps in the door frame.

A Stroll Through Seattle's New Waterfront S99 Tunnel

This Farewell Viaduct sign greeted us as we got close to the entrance of the new tunnel that will route cars under ground below the Alaskan Way along Seattle's waterfront.  When we got out at the south end (we were in the upper tunnel which is the southbound tunnel) we saw this part of the viaduct that they've already started to remove.

So, today, before cars go through, the public was invited to walk through the southbound tunnel.  Other people chose to walk along the viaduct.  Here are some pictures with minimum comment.



We entered the tunnel just south of the Space Needle.

While we were in the tunnel I estimated there were about 50 people in a 100 foot section on average, which, if my in my head math was accurate came out to roughly 16,000 people in the 2 mile tunnel.  That's a rough, rough estimate.  It was mostly downhill, until the end when we were coming back up to the surface near the Mariners Stadium.





Now and then there were signs for us pre-car pedestrians to tell us where we were.

They do a little better if you click on them to enlarge and focus.

And signs for the vehicles that will take over this space pretty soon.

Here's looking back after we exited the tunnel, two miles later.  

And here's the northbound entrance (on the right) where the southbound tunnel exits (where the people are walking out.)




So that was part of the day.  In the morning I took my granddaughter to Home Depot for one of their monthly crafts projects for kids, which she's really into.  She got to hammer nails, screw in a screw, and paint a Valentine's box.