A Venice Beach Break

 Our outdoor thermometer read -10˚F (-23˚C).  That was not abnormal when we first moved to Anchorage in 1977, but it hasn't been that frequent in the last 10 or 20 years.  I know it sounds awful - especially to folks who have never experienced it, but the sky was crystal clear, the air still, and it's like being in another, amazing world.  As they say, there's no bad weather, just bad clothes.

In any case, we flew through Seattle and got to LAX Monday night.  LAX is still trying to be a world class airport.  But it still doesn't have rail service and you have to take a shuttle bus to get a taxi or Uber, etc.  It used to be a taxi to my mom's house was around $30.  That's why we often just took the bus.  Then came Uber and Lyft and we could get to the airport for about $19.  But when I opened the Uber app, prices ranged from $33, then a bunch between $56-$86, and then some that were $200 and up.  We decided on a taxi, which ended up $29.  (That's all without tip of course.)

Tuesday was the storm.  It rained on and off, but didn't seem to match the great storm predictions.  Or maybe we slept through it.  By the afternoon there was sun.  But it was in the high 40s, chilly for LA.

Yesterday it was in the 50s and J found the bike pump and I went off to see what the last two years have brought.  Things look pretty much the same.  The biggest difference was the fence along Penmar Golf Course.  (This is a public course that was a swamp when I was a kid and a great natural playground I spent many hours in.)

Well, of course the gold course has always had a fence.  But there's a dirt pathway along the outside which had been changing into a homeless camp.  It had campers parked there for a while, but last time there were also tents along the walkway. Here's a pic I posted January 2019:

Here's what it looked like yesterday:

There are houses across the street and having homeless folks camped out by your house without bathrooms can become old.  From the neighbors' perspective this is neighborhood improvement.  Not sure what the homeless who camped here think.  If they've been offered decent lodging, maybe they'd agree.  

From my perspective, the city has blocked off a beautiful walkway along the golf course that I used to jog along when I was still running.  The bike trail is still usable.  It's only an improvement in the sense that our society has deteriorated to the extent that there are so many homeless people that the city has to fence off their encampments to get them out of the neighbors' hair.  Having a social safety net like most European countries have would have been a better way to deal with this - that is make it so people have health care, including mental health care.  Have jobs that pay a living wage.  Support those losing jobs to cheaper labor overseas or automation.  Better education.  Child care for working families, etc.  Then this would still be a lovely walk way for the neighbors to enjoy without the extra fencing blocking it off.  

Our understandings of the world and of human behavior never worked all that well, but the Protestant work ethic - just work hard and you'll do well - is not an accurate description for most people.  Yes, there are examples of it working, but the homeless populations in the various US cities shows us that we need more complex theories.  

But I was headed for the beach on this nbikeride and so were you in this blog post.  

The next picture has me almost there - riding down the last block of Rose Avenue before getting to Venice Beach.  I love this view with the palm trees and the water off ahead of me.  I spent a lot of time at the beach here as a kid and later in life visiting my mom.  

But I got to the bike trail, which wasn't there anymore.  Truly, we must have slept through the worst of the storm.  The bike trail was completely covered with sand.  Mostly it was navigable by bke, but there were places I just had to get off and walk.  I did google to see if anyone has explained all the sand, but all the reports are from previous years - usually wind blowing sand.  But I've never seen it like this.  Was it high tides and wind?  (The moon was close to full.)  I did call a number on an LA City Venice Beach website, but the woman who answered said she had nothing to do with Venice Beach.  I've sent an email to an address on that page, but I'm not holding my breath.  

I got to the skateboard park which had a few skaters despite a sign saying it was closed for filming obligations.   

Folks were filming - tv show?  movie?  commercial?  - taking advantage of the dune like setting.  I'd note this wall of sand is usually there, courtesy of the City of Los Angeles.  Then I made my way a little further to Venice Pier where I got these pictures 

Santa Monica mountains in the background.

This isn't a high resolution photo, but if you look closely above the building, closer to the pole on the left, you can see what I think is Mt. Baldy with a good amount of snow.  I'd note, with the sandy bike trail, there were very few other bikers.  The pier was pretty empty and I didn't see anyone fishing in the choppy waters.  Nor were there any surfers below the pier.  That's a first for me.  

On the way back I just stayed on the pedestrian walk (that turns into the Venice Boardwalk) which had been cleared of sand.  I stopped at the Frank Gehry house (designed by the famous architect, not where he lives).  Here's a post with the Disney Concert Hall for a very different Geary construction.

Finally back to the Boardwalk - Venice's contribution to edgy kitsch.

And then I was back on my way home having enjoyed the beach, and pushing pedals.  

And yes, I've got links to all the redistricting legal challenges and I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with them.  Also so Tom Begich's press release about yesterday's Board meeting (also an email and I can't find a link) which I spent at Venice Beach.  Later.  

Swans At Taku Lake on Sunny Grey Day

You can listen to this song as you read.  It should make sense by the end.  

The sun kept a steady beam shining through the clouds as I biked over to Taku Lake today.  I reached my 745 km goal (a vicarious bike ride from Chiangmai to Bangkok) on September 13.  There's a tension between the benefits of riding the bike outdoors regularly and how my knees feel.  It's obvious that three or four days without being on a bike makes my knees feel much better.  I can live with a little pain if I know that the damage done is temporary.  (It doesn't hurt while I ride, just later on.)  

But there was still good biking weather and so I made a new goal.  800 kilometers.  I reached that goal October 4.  So what next?  A quick and dirty calculation of .6 * 800km got me to 480 miles, so I needed 20 more miles to get to 500 miles.  That would be about 32 more kilometers.  It's not all that important and I didn't set out to go that far today.  But the weather was good, everything was beautiful and a changing seasons way, and I got to Taku Lake feeling good.  

At the south end of the lake were four swans (and a number of smaller and darker water birds) taking a rest on their way south.  

Then back home with a stop on one of the many bridges that cross over the meandering creek to  get a picture of the sun's reflection (maybe glare is a more apt term) on the creek.  Although the sky was mostly grey, the sun made its presence known most of the way.  

It ended up being 13+ kms.  All but about three kilometers were on dedicated bike trail in the greenbelt that buffers the creek from residential and commercial streets.  There's only one non-residential street that I have to cross.  So I now had 816.5 kms for the summer.  Time to check precisely how much more before I hit 500.  So I googled 500 miles = x kms.  Turns out the simple .6 rounds off more than I thought.  804km = 500 miles. 

 I was already there when I started.  So know I'll just ride until it's icy on the trails.  Winter biking, will be on the bike with studded tires and only for short distances if there's what used to be a normal snow covering - without ice.  

Meanwhile, I'm working on a post on how the different redistricting plans move me from one district to another.  Enjoy your Sunday.  Find something wonderful - whether it's the bark on a tree or an old picture of people you love.  

Falling

Even though winter made a brief visit last week - checking out his winter home I guess - it is still just fall.  And after doing some chores and errands, I got on the bike for a few more kilometers.  For now my goal is 800 for the summer.  And it was sunny and beautiful.  Below is the south fork of Campbell Creek from Campbell Airstrip Road.

A quick view of the mountains as the bike trail comes out of the woods and goes along the road.

Campbell Creek, closer to Lake Otis.

Looking up at the Mt. Ash Tree

That's all.  Just lots of trees.  

 

Made It To Bangkok Today - Sort Of

My summer biking goal was to make it from Chiang Mai to Bangkok - 745 km or 462 miles.  But we haven't been out of Alaska since early March 2020.  So this was a way to set a target distance and imagine now and then, as I biked along Anchorage bike trails, the rice paddies, the temples, the markets, and the smiles of Thailand.  Here's the post from May describing the trip and the background.

I scrounged through some old boxes of slides.  I didn't want to give you something stereotypically Bangkok and my old slides and pictures are well hidden away in the closets.  But here are two pictures that mean something to me.

My third year in Thailand I lived in Thonburi, right across the river from Bangkok and the royal palace.  To get to and from my room, in a school near the river, I had to take the little ferry that crossed the Chao Phaya.  It cost 50 satang - or half a baht.  In those days the baht was 20 to the dollar if I remember right, so it was about 2.5 cents.  It took about ten minutes to get on board, cross, and get off.  It was like changing from one world into another.  A relaxation chamber as we crossed the water.  The picture is of that ferry from Tha Chang (tha means pier, and chang means elephant, so essentially the elephant pier) on the Bangkok side of the river.  These two pictures are from 1969.  

Below is a very typical Thai scene.  A monk, in the morning, going house to house giving everyone a chance to gain merit by scooping some rice into his bowl as well as other dishes to go with rice.  The monks didn't eat after noon.  I'm pretty sure this was when I was staying at Thai colleague's house right on a small canal.  When I stayed with them, bathing was in the canal.  This was before the widespread use of chemical fertilizers and other pollutants.  

And below is what it really looked like on my ride today as fall begins in Anchorage.  This is out near Campbell Airstrip.  The red leaves of low ground cover.   

I still have time before the snow flies to get some more biking in, but it's nice to make my target.  My knees will be happy when I cut back my biking.  But I'll miss it.  

A Cloud Break

Sun finally came out late this afternoon.  I've been on the laptop way too long.  So I got in another bike ride.  But I quickly realized the sun might be short lived.   Those clouds surely had a lot of water in them.  

Just about halfway and I passed through a tour group getting prepared to return south.

On the way back the clouds was even more ominous.   It started raining.  Not too hard.   I was briefly back in the sun, but couldn't find a rainbow.  

And it was sunny again when I got home.  I'm 11 kilometers closer to Bangkok.  17 km to Ayutthaya and then 30 more to Bangkok.  To understand these last travel reference see this post from May this year when I started this bike 'tour.'

Alaska COVID 2021 Highs And Some Vaccine Numbers

 Today's COVID tab entry:

Wednesday, August 18,2021 - Four new deaths reported today.  That's nine in the last two days.

Current COVID patients hospitalized 148 - that's 127 listed as 'Currently Hospitalized - COVID positive" and 21 more listed as 'Currently On Vent Statewide - COVID Positive or Suspected'.  Or, as I've been reporting 127/21.  That's an increase of one person since yesterday.  The cases dashboard says there are 13 newly hospitalized people.  That sounds about right - four people died and a few others maybe got better and left the hospital.  

28 available ICU beds Statewide.  Three in Anchorage!

633/617 new resident cases.  That's a new 2021 high for one day and the highest since Dec. 10, 2021.  The Cases Dashboard changed.  Instead of 'resident' and 'non-resident' options, we now get 'resident' and 'all' options.  But I couldn't get the all button to get me different data from 'resident' data.  Not sure why they thought this was a better idea.  Every time you change how you organize the data, you making tracking and comparisons harder.  So there has to be a really compelling reason.  And if you change the Dashboard, but it doesn't actually work . . .

About 10,500 tests.  Test Positivity is up to 7.43.  Another 2021 high.  Hasn't been this high since November 23, 2020 when it was 8.13.  

If you get to talk - not shout - with an anti-vaxxer, just ask when their relationship with their parents changed from parent/child to friend/friend.  

 These COVID updates don't usually show up in the main window.  They're at a tab under the top banner. Alaska Daily COVID-19 Count 3  I'm putting this one in here because Alaska's COVID situation continues to deteriorate.  Here's some added info on vaccination rate.

Last week- August 11, 2021:

The Key Numbers As Of August 18, 2021
# of people who have two vaccines shots in Alaska: 324,635. That's in increase of 3,101 since last week (Aug 11) # of people who have had one vaccine shot in Alaska: 36,519 That's an increase of 1,320 since last week.

It took Alaska four and a half months to get 50% of population with one or more shots.

It's taken three months to get the next 8%

And here's today's (August 18, 2021).  

In one week we have gone from from 58.8% with one or more shots to 59.5%.  From  356,823 people to 361,154 or a total increase of 4,669.

From 53% with two shots to 53.5%.  321,534 people to 324,635, or a total of 3,101 increase.

Remember, that the first number is people with one + shots.  So it includes all the people with one AND all the people with two shots.  To find out how many only had one shot, we subtract the two shots number from the one+ shots.

Last week: 356,823 - 321,534 = 35,289 people with just one shot

This week:  361,154 - 324,635 =  36,519 people with just one shot   

That would mean 1320 people got their first shots in the last week and 3,101 got their second shots

Looking at the graph on the bottom of this week's chart, I highlighted as close as I could get to 50% - (50.3%) on May 13, 2021.  

So, it took Alaskans about four and a half months to get to 50% with one or more shots.

And it's taken three more months to go another 9%!

I understand there are people who believe that the vaccine doesn't work, that it injects God knows what into their bodies.  There are people who make lots of money off of conning people into fearing the vaccines.  Those people who didn't vote in Anchorage's mayoral runoff election helped to vote an anti-masker/anti-vaccine guy into office.  Even though over 50% of people over 12 have been vaccinated twice.  People - you have to vote or we get crazies elected to make decisions for us.  

On a more positive note, I reached Nakorn Sawan the other day and have about 130 km left to get to Bangkok.  (No, I'm not in Thailand.  I'm doing this imaginary ride on the bike trails of Anchorage.  It looks like I'll make the 750 kms in plenty of time.  I can't tell people how wonderful it is to ride through the woods with creeks on one side several times a week.  I may have to do a short side trip after I'm done to keep me going until the snow falls.  

Made It To Kamphaengphet Saturday In My Summer Anchorage Biking Trek

Back in May I described my itinerary - Chiangmai to Bangkok - 745 kilometers.  I'm doing this on the bike trails of Anchorage.  The original post gives a bit of background to this  way of giving me a reason  - beyond the sheer joy of being on a bike whizzing through the woods - for this technique.  Knowing how many kilometers I have to cover gets me out on days my body would rather not.  But once my feet are pushing pedals, I'm glad I'm out riding.  There's also a map showing the distances between key points.  

Kamphaengphet is kilometer 445, so I'm over half way.  That's good, because biking season  is also half over.   ( I have an old bike with studded tires for winter, but I don't do long bike rides when there is snow and ice)

This stop is particularly special because I spent two years in Kamphaengphet teaching English as a Peace Corps volunteer in the late 1960s.  Below are some pictures from that time - a world much more closely connected to the past than it's connected to the present.  

These are from an album I put together while I was there.  Black and white photos I could get developed at the local photographer shop. The place where people could get portraits done.  But Kodak and Fuji slides had to be sent to Hong Kong or Australia to be developed.  That was minimally a two week process.  I think of my grandkids who probably don't even know about film and are used to seeing the picture the instant it's taken.  (I checked with my oldest and she did not know.)

This picture seems appropriate - me on a bike on the road in front of the school with the temple ruins and the water buffaloes in the background.  My house was on the school grounds, up on stilts, with two other 'apartments'  for teachers in the same building. The soccer field was between my house and this road.  So I had a view of the old temple chedis.  Here's a great link that explains the names of the different parts of Thai temples. My bike was my main form of transportation, though my colleagues had motorcycles too.  Peace Corps didn't let us have motorcycles but at that time the current ban on even riding on the back of a cycle didn't exist.  Peace Corps says the ban came after they figured out that most Peace Corps deaths came from motorcycle accidents.  My experience would have been significantly different had I not been able to ride on the back of motorcycles.  (Sorry for the blur, I didn't take this picture.)

This was one of my students.  Soccer was a big part of school life and since the best soccer field was directly in front of my house, a big part of my life.  It was out on this field that I set up the portable record player/radio that I'd bought when we stopped in Hong Kong on the way and played records in the moonlight when my trunk finally arrived.  I also played soccer there and started my love of jogging running around the field.  And the chedi was always there in the background.  At that time you could walk over and climb up on it and sit and contemplate the world.  Now it's part of a National Historic Park and has a fence and admission fee.

A short distance from the school in the forest were several more impressive temples.  I used to walk or bike over to be alone with these ancient structures - about 600 or 700 years old.  The Buddha on the left was part of a temple called The Temple of the Four Positions.  This was the sitting position.  There was a standing Buddha, a reclining Buddha, and a less common walking Buddha.

The elephants surrounded to top of another temple more in the hidden in the woods, up on a bluff overlooking the River Bing. [Mae Nam literally means mother water, or river and usually proceeds the name of the river.  So sometimes you see names like Mae Nam Bing River.  Which is sort of redundant.]  I'm not sure how many elephants there were all around the temple (It was called something like Temple With Elephant Around it) but there were a lot.  The English book we used had stories in every lesson - stories from British history, US history, and Thai history, so I learned about Thai heroes of various wars against Burma, Laos, and Cambodia.  This temple looked out toward the mountains over which the Burmese army would have had to come.  

There was no television reception in my town.  So 'commercials' were live.  Here's the medicine salesman gathering a crowd with his microphone and cobra.  When enough people showed up, he'd get the mongoose out of the box and have a battle between the leashed mongoose and the well drugged cobra. And then he'd sell all sorts of medicine.  

And this is why I was here.  To teach English to MS 3 students at the boys' school.  MS 3 translates to about 8th grade.  They were fantastic students and we generally had a great time.  Our teacher training back in DeKalb, Illinois had been excellent.  We had 50 minute lessons for each chapter.  Each class would start with about five minutes of pronunciation drills.  There are lots of sounds in English that don't exist in Thai.  There are only about nine final consonant sounds in Thai.  Most English consonant clusters are real challenges for Thais because they don't exist in Thai.   Steve became Sateeb. (There's no v sound in Thai, let alone a final v.  The closest Thai has is a final b.  Other v's become w.)  Then ten minutes of vocabulary - lots of creative activities to get across the meanings without using Thai.  Then we had grammar drills, ideally using the sounds from the pronunciation drills and the vocabulary from that drill.  Then we'd read from the story and ask questions about the story.  Everything in English.  Thai not allowed.  Some of the things they learned best were classroom instructions that got used every day.  Stand up.  Sit down.  Louder please.  Stop talking.  Who wants to read first?   Open your books.  Repeat after me. 

About the kid with the bare feet.  No, it wasn't that he didn't have shoes.  Thais just take their shoes off before they go inside.  So outside the classroom would be lots of shoes.  

This is the old Burmese stupa and temple across the river.  On Buddha's birthday everyone went there and in the full moon, carried candles around the stupa.  It was a connection they had to their ancestors who had done the same thing for hundreds of years.  

So it was exciting Saturday knowing that I'd made it to Kamphaengphet on my summer biking adventure.  While I rode through cool birch and spruce forests in Anchorage, I was imagining the dusty roads, the wonderful people and their smiles, the delicious food, and the temples as they were back in 1967-69.  

This is just the tiniest peeks at my three years living with Thais.  Three years that dramatically rewired my brain.  The temple pictures are here because Buddhism wasn't really a religion, it was a way of life and permeated everything.  A good Buddhist doesn't even kill a mosquito.  And there was a tolerance for everyone.  There were, of course, economic differences among people, but even the king prostrated himself before the great Buddha statues.  I'm using the past tense here because I'm writing about that Thailand back then.  I've been able to spend time in Thailand since then and while the basics are still the same, the gap between the US and Thailand technologically has gotten very small.  Back in the 60s, Thailand was a different world, a different time, from the US.  No longer.  

Today I did another 16.5 km so I'm on my way to Nakorn Sawan.  This is the longer between stops and I remember the dusty red dirt road in the last three hours of my trips back from Bangkok.  Lots of rice and mountains that looked like growths on the mostly flat landscape.  I'd note that all these roads have long since been paved.  

I Made It To Uttaradit Today On Anchorage's Campbell Creek Trail

 I mentioned in an earlier post that last summer I biked from Santiago, Chile to Conception - all while staying comfortably isolated on Anchorage bike trails.  About 700 kilometers.  This year I wanted to go a little further so I'm biking from Chiangmai to Bangkok.  

The first destination point was Lampang (120 km) which I got to a while ago.  Today I hit km 269 which gets me to the next stop, Uttaradit.  As I rode today, I was wondering if I have ever been to Uttaradit.  Probably the train went through it when I first arrived in Thailand in 1967 and the Peace Corps volunteers headed for the North all took the train to Chiangmai.  

But I knew that I must have been at least near Uttaradit in 2009 when I was a volunteer with the Northern Thai Farmers Association in Chiangmai and we went to a meeting in Petchabun for Thai farmers from all over Thailand.  

I found a couple of pictures of the trip on a post from then.  It was January and there were record low temperatures.  It even snowed on Doi Suthep.  

On the road somewhere between Lamphun and Uttaradit.

In Thailand, there are always great places to eat along the way.  

It was putsa season.  And a few days later, on the way back to Chiangmai we stopped at a tamarind farm.  Petchabun is said to have the world's best tamarind and I bought enough fresh tamarind to last our whole trip.  Until you've had fresh tamarind in Thailand, you haven't really tasted tamarind.

So these are the landscapes I've been imagining myself biking through for the last couple of weeks.  But actually, I've been on the beautiful bike trails of Anchorage enjoying the greening of the trees and grasses and shrubs and the various colors and gurglings of Campbell Creek and Taku Lake and Goose Lake.  

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal tweeted an article about making friends with a tree.  That it's good for your health.  I've known that a long time, but hearing the WSJ dip their toe into such touchy/feely water is a surprise.  [Of course, I say touchy/feely ironically.]  My bike rides last summer and this summer have been regular forest bathing experiences.  

And Anchorage temperatures are so much more conducive to biking that it would be now arriving in Uttaradit.  

Taku Lake this morning.  Everything's soooo green right now.

Red necked grebe amongst the water lilies at Goose Lake the other day.

Riding under the Seward Highway bridge today.  This really is better than drugs to energize me.

I've got 90 km to get to Sukhothai - an ancient capital of Thailand and directly north of where I lived in Kamphaengphet for two years in the late 60s.  Back then, there was no direct road and I remember riding on the back of a motorcycle through rice paddies.  

And then from Sukhothai to Kamphaengphet.  The bike tour I found online does this trip in ten days.  There's no way I could do that now.  My knees can't take that much biking in such a short time.  But I can spread the 750 or so kilometers more slowly over the summer in Anchorage. Another several weeks to Sukhothai.  I'll let you know when I get there.  

Biking Chiang Mai To Bangkok This Summer In Anchorage

 Back around Fall 1981, the University of Alaska Anchorage swimming pool had a challenge - swim the Bering Sea over the semester.  In the pool.  50 miles.  I've never been as fit as I was that semester.  Each swim was not just a swim, but a leg across the Bering Sea.  That was a lot of incentive to get in the pool three or four times a week.  

So last summer I decided I should have a mental trip in mind for my biking.  I chose Santiago Chile to Concepción - a distance of about 650 kilometers, depending on which route you take.  So, as I rode last summer, I was in Anchorage, but also in Chile.  I looked at maps and pictures of the places I was passing.  Just like swimming the Bering Sea, riding from Santiago to Concepción was the inspiration I needed to get on the bike, even on days I was feeling lazy.  And once out, I never regretted it.  

So I've started already this summer and thought about going from Chiang Mai to Bangkok.  I wasn't exactly sure how far that was, but it seemed in the ballpark.  I looked on line to see if it was doable.  Not only is it doable, but there are a number of companies that will take you on the actual trip and so I picked Exo Travel because their trip was 745 km and the itinerary included a stop in Kamphaengphet - a town I lived in for two years teaching English.  I've also spent six months in Chiang Mai over two years and about a year in the Bangkok area.  

I've added up the miles from Exo Travel's itinerary and marked the distance from Chiang Mai for each daily destination.  The 165 km from Kamphaengphet to Nakhon Sawan would be way too much for me to do in one day.  I think about that trip on the main road back in the late 1960s.  It was a red dirt road.  Very dusty. Lots of rice paddies and some interesting hills jutting up oddly out of the earth.  Of course, it's paved now - they were working on that back when I was first there.  

So, as of today, I've ridden about 102km.  (That doesn't count three or four early, shorter rides on the old mountain bike before the ice was totally gone.)  

So let's look at today.  Before riding I swept the cottonwood catkins off the deck.  I have to do that twice a day right now.  

The catkins are VERY sticky.  If I don't sweep they stick to the deck, except for the ones that stick to my shoes.  Very messy period every year.  But they do smell very sweet.  

The tulips opened today.  At least two of them did.

There was a moose browsing by the trail as I went past the UAA student housing.  I'm always amazed at how such huge creatures can be so well hidden out in plain sight.  

Then up the trail toward Stuckagain Heights and Campbell Airstrip.  

Here's the north fork of Campbell Creek as it crosses under the Stuckagain Heights road.  

So given my bike rides so far since April including today, I've covered 102 kms, so I'm about 20 kms out of Lampang.  This is an old northern town that still has horse drawn carriages you can use to get around town.  There are no moose, but the elephant sanctuary is nearby.  

Here's are some links to posts I did at the elephant sanctuary in Lampang.

Elephants Part 1

Thai Elephant Conservation Center Hospital in Lampang and the Nursery (Part 2)

Keeping Busy Doing Nothing - AK Press Club, Seedlings, Bike, Cooking, Redistricting, COVID, Spanish, Grandkids. . .

 Time seems to whiz by.  Suddenly it's Wednesday and I have to take out the garbage again.  How can it be 10pm, it's still light out?  I just paid that bill.  Making it worse, it seems like I haven't gotten anything done.  

But when I try to track what I'm doing, it turns out I'm really doing a lot.  I'm tracking and posting  the Alaska COVID numbers every day.  I'm doing 20-40 minutes into DuoLingo Spanish.

I try to do the Cryptoquote and the Sudoku in the paper every day.

My Seattle granddaughter FaceTimes with us for an hour or three several times a week.  And I've been volunteering in her class, via zoom, listening to kids read books of their choice.  The SF grandkids have a regular two or three hours every Wednesday afternoon.  

This month, the Alaska Press Club has been having Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 8am workshops in lieu of a three day in person conference.  Despite the horrible hour, all the ones I've listened in on (all of them so far) have been excellent.  Yesterday was one on covering Corrections and included a reporter who does cover corrections, an ACLU employee who works on corrections issues and used to work for the Dept of Corrections under Walker, and a woman who started a non-profit called Supporting Our Loved Ones Group - people who have friends and relatives in prison.  One part of the discussion focused on the words that journalists use to describe people in prison. I guess I've had a soft spot for the plight of prisoners ever since I visited a former 6th grade student (he was then probably in the 9th grade) at a juvenile detention center outside of Los Angeles maybe 50 years ago.  Other sessions have been on Climate Change and How to Choose And Write Stories. They also did one on setting up an elections debate commission for Alaska that was very compelling.  You can see the commission proposal here.   I've got notes for blog posts on all of these, but the Anchorage Municipal Election and the Redistricting Board have distracted me.  

I haven't seen much coverage at all in other media about the Alaska Redistricting Board and since I covered it intensely in 2011-13, I realize I know a lot about what it is, what the issues are, and what was done last time.  So it seems I'm stuck doing it again.  Right now not much is happening - setting things up procedurally and getting staff - they've hired a law firm to advise them and they are getting an RFI ready to hire a Voting Rights Act consultant.  They are behind the pace of ten years ago because the Pandemic and Trump policies slowed down the Census Count and the State redistricting numbers won't come out until maybe August this year.  Last time they got the numbers in March.

I've started my summer biking in earnest yesterday, keeping to the trails along streets while the trails through the greenbelts still have snow on them.  I did a seven mile test run south on Lake Otis, east on Dowling, north on Elmore, then wandering through neighborhoods back home.

Here's Campbell Creek from Lake Otis

An aside about snow this year.  I'd asked Weather Service guy Brian Brettschneider, via DM on Twitter, if we'd had more snow days this year, because it seemed like I was shoveling snow all the time.  He responded: 

"Anchorage will finish with about 5" less snowfall than normal. But our snow depth was one of the greatest on record. We basically had 0 melting events throughout the season."

Riding along Dowling, the ice and snow were gone from the trail the whole ride.  

And then Campbell Creek again, this time looking back from Elmore.

My knees have been showing signs of being past their warranty.  Running is out.  Biking was ok last summer.  I'm hoping I can do another 600 km or more this summer, but it will depend on how my knees react.  

We've been zooming in to the Alaska Black Caucus' Sunday panels. (Link to this Sunday's forum is on the upper right of their page.) They've been doing a great job covering a lot of topics from candidate forums (School Board and Mayor, and this Sunday they are going to have the mayoral runoff candidates - Dunbar and Bronson) to discussions on things like body cameras for police and the military experience in Alaska for Blacks.  They've been having 50 and 60 attendees every week.  Really well done.  I've never heard candidates talk so candidly.  But then the 

There was also a Citizens Climate lobby meeting and a few other zoom meetings.

One way to get through all the zoom meetings is to do relatively mindless tasks that allow me to pay attention, but also get something done.  Eating is the most obvious, but I also prepared and baked a bread through one meeting.  

And used the left over dough to make a veggie pizza.  

And I've been planting seeds now that I can see patches of ground through the snow outside.  Trying Arctic Tomatoes this year.  But I've also got arugula, stock, snapdragons, pansies, sweet peas, flax, and a few other seeds growing.  

I suspect that feeling like I haven't gotten anything done comes partially through the fact that zoom meetings let you stay home and so you don't get out that much.  When you physically go to a meeting, it (probably, it's hard to remember) feels more like you've actually done something.  So I have to write things down to remind myself that I've actually been busy and doing worthwhile things.  

Oh, and watching some of the video of each of the UAA Chancellor candidates.  A really diverse selection.  Not a good time to be a white male in this crowd I'm guessing.  Most looked reasonable, some very good, and our Superintendent of Schools must have been unwell, because she couldn't be still or say more than platitudes.  You can watch them yourselves.  I'd recommend about ten minutes of each to get a sense of them.  Really, these tell us mostly how well they speak in public.  To some extent how much the know about higher education.  But not too much about how well they can run a university.