Back Home To Snow And Moose

We left from the D Concourse at SEATAC which has my favorite art piece there - Michael Fajans' High Wire.  I posted about it back in 2008.  (Back then I wrote that it was in Terminal B, but it was definitely in D yesterday.  Maybe the old post was wrong.)

After a couple of gate changes, trying to get in as much of the impeachment hearings as I could, we were in the air above the clouds over Alaska.  It was late afternoon - Anchorage's official sunset yesterday was 3:48pm, but if it's not too cloudy, we have long twilights - and the orange glow was on the western horizon, while out my east facing window there were snow mountains.

And around 4:20pm it was still light enough to capture these exquisite winter scenes with only a slight blur from the long exposure time.  

And as we circled over Cook Inlet to land in Anchorage, the sunset was still painted on the western sky.  

I went out to get our passes for the Anchorage International Film Festival which begins tomorrow night and to pick up some groceries and just on 36th there was a moose crossing the road in the dark.

One of those amazing moments when out of the darkness you realize there's a magnificent

moose and there's no time to react.  Fortunately it was still in the oncoming lane as I passed.  No time to even take a picture, even if I hadn't left my phone at home.  What a great welcome home.




At my dentist this morning this moose was on the wall.  Not quite the same.  But I was sitting still and so was the moose.



















And I'm pleased to say that my studded tires worked like a charm as I rode over to the dentist and back.  I'm getting a little more confident that they aren't going to betray me.  Hoping my trust in them proves warranted.  I won't be reckless, but a little less cautious.









So, let's just leave this post as it is - on light subjects or art, travel, mountains, moose, AIFF2019, and biking in the snow.

"The copulation of cattle as an enterprise in Ballona was soon mounted" and Other Notes

1.  Mar Vista History

My mother's house is in a part of Los Angeles called Mar Vista and a local realtor there dropped off a flier with a lengthy excerpt from a history of Mar Vista.  When I looked up the source - the Mar Vista Historical Society - I found the whole long and, for some of us, interesting document.

But I have to say that the sentence in this post's title jumped out at me.  One possible explanation is that this part was translated into English, presumably from Spanish, and the the computer stuck in 'copulation' instead of 'breeding.'  But I can't account for the 'mounted.'

I'd note that the excerpt in the real estate flier left out the story in the original of how the Spanish settlers' land grants displace the indigenous people in the area and then after the Spanish American war, the Americans either invalidated outright or set up administrative barriers that effectively dispossessed the Mexican landowners of their property.



2.  Viewing Sourdough Starter As A Pet

It's been a long time since Cocoa died, but we decided against another dog because we didn't think it fair if we were going to be away for longish periods.  But I realized on this trip, that in some ways my
sourdough starter is a kind of pet.  But one that can stay safely in the refrigerator for fairly long periods of time.  But as we were close to returning to Anchorage, I began to wonder how my starter was doing.

When we got home I took it out, let it warm up a bit, then fed it a bit of flour and water.  Soon it had risen in the jar and was actively bubbling.  So I had to do the sourdough starter equivalent of taking it for a walk, I had to make a bread.

The rubber band around the jar shows where the starter was after I fed it.  When it grows like that, it's like a dog jumping and yipping to go for a walk.

I made two breads.  First a baguette and then a second round loaf.  Here's the baguette.


3.  One Step Closer To Filling The Gap

Picture from Mayo Clinic

Back in October I wrote about the post the oral surgeon embedded in my gum.  On the left is a picture from the Mayo Clinic.  In the October post, I talked about the process and there's a picture of my post implanted in my mouth.

It takes time for the post to get connected firmly to the existing jaw bone.  So Friday the oral surgeon checked to see if it was in ok.  Monday I go to my regular dentist who will do a mold for a new tooth.  The oral surgeon was pleased with his work and said no one would notice.

I couldn't help but think about having the dentist give me a green tooth so they would.  After a bit more thought, I was thinking I should have the tooth on the other side pulled too and get vampire like fangs.  It would be great if you could have several different teeth and you could trade them out by yourself.  I suspect the dentist has to do that.  I'll check on Monday.  The dentist had a full display of teeth in the window sill.

The 'flipper' (sort of like a retainer with a tooth on it) that was supposed to fill the hole until all this work is done, was a pain.  It interfered with speech - my tongue would rub against it on the roof of my mouth when I spoke - and it made eating unpleasant.  It might be a good diet tool, but I found it a pain.  So I wasn't too upset when it disappeared somewhere in the house.  If you don't mind a gappy smile, I'd recommend skipping the flipper.  Fortunately, the missing tooth isn't right in front.





On the way home I passed this hoar frosted hedge.  Most of the trees I saw looked like this. Yesterday there was more snow, warmer temps, and all the frost is gone.










3.  Citizens Climate Lobby Meeting

The second Saturday of the month is the international CCL meeting.  The Anchorage chapter meets at UAA.  The speaker was Yareth Yoram [not sure where Yareth came from] Bauman, the man who lead the Washington state's initiative for a revenue neutral carbon fee in that state.  It didn't pass, but it got 40% of the vote, and potential opponents with deep pockets, chose not to campaign against it.




You can listen to the podcast of the meeting here.



4.  Shoveling Snow - My Winter Exercise

Yesterday we got about 5 inches of snow, and showering out the driveway and sidewalk was a productive way to get in some good exercise.  People didn't used to have to go to the gym to stay fit, they just walked more and did chores without all sorts of motorized devices.

When I got back from the meeting, there was another inch of snow and it was windy.  Our mountain ash tree tends to keep its leaves as long as it can and the wind had scattered some of them onto my recently shoveled driveway.  But I got out the shovel and did another rep.   I feel great after 30-60 minutes of moving snow around.

By the late afternoon, there was sunshine and clear sky.

New Post, Fitness, Garden Work, and Windows, While The Weather's Good

Was getting business done today while the sun was out and the sky was blue.  It was down to 29˚F (-2˚C)  this morning, but closer to 50˚F (10˚C) when I biked to the oral surgeon to get my new post checked out.  Last week, when he put it in, I had to have a driver to take me home.  But today he was just checking it and he was pleased with his work.  It's a long process getting an implant.  The dentist said an implant was a better option than a crown some time ago.  Then it had to be extracted and packed with bone that needed to meld with my own bone.  (It wasn't easy getting that picture.)


When that was set, he put in the post (last week) and now it's three more months until the post is tightly embedded in the bone.  And then, finally, a fake tooth gets snapped onto the post.  I've got a retainer like device with a 'flipper' - a temporary fake tooth, but it's a hassle.  It fits well and you'd never notice it, but it's not fun to eat with it in.  And the plastic backing rests on the roof of my mouth, so it always feels dried out.  And it catches my tongue so I feel like I'm talking funny.  I think I would have skipped the flipper if I'd have known I couldn't eat with it in.  (Well you can eat with it, but it's not comfortable.  It would make a good diet tool.)  I guess it's a question of how willing you re to walk around with a missing tooth, cause it takes a long time to be able to put in the implant.  Mine is not right in the front, but you can see it when I'm talking.

I stopped at the YMCA on the way back to check on the various exercise classes.  Two weeks ago in San Francisco, my son took me to his gym where they had an open day for potential new clients.  It was an hour of circuit training - pulling, pushing, jumping, lunging, carrying, running - and I was pleased to be able to keep up with the rest of the crowd - if a little bit slower - who were mostly 20 years or more younger.  But the next four days, muscles I haven't heard from in years, were all letting me know they didn't appreciate me waking them up.  But it felt great during that hour and the rest of the day.

J's been taking some of the Y classes and so I went to find something that might challenge my body more than biking can do, especially as we move toward winter.  We'll see.  I figure the best way to keep moving is to keep moving and to push those muscles a bit.  But I'll build up more slowly than two weeks ago.






Then back home to work out in the back yard. Yesterday I planted a bunch of narcissus bulbs.  I had a bare spot in the front yard where I'd taken out some of the mountain ash shoots that I'd let grow into small trees over the years.  But they're starting to block the sun too much.

The first bag of 18 bulbs was disappointing.  I'd say about eight were either dried out totally or they were mushy soft.  The other two bags were good, and I had more bulbs than would fit in the space.  We'll see next spring whether my plan for a stream of daffodils works out or not.


Today I raked leaves for mulch.  Online it said to mulch with evergreen branches so I trimmed a couple of the fir trees in back and then covered them with leaves.

And then I tackled the rain gutters.  The one in front had lots of wet compost.  The one in back just had dried leaves.  Finally, I washed the windows in the front.

My window washing kit makes it pretty easy and it seemed like a good idea to get this done while the weather was almost warm.  The windows look much better.

Also watched some 'good' and 'bad' videos of interviewing people for my Journalism Skills for Engaged Citizens.  It was nice to know that lots of journalists dislike the confrontation often necessary when interviewing folks for a story.  Basically, what I saw as the differences between the good and bad interviews (of the same people) were 1) getting to the point and not doing a lot of apologizing for having to ask hard questions, and 2) being prepared so you know enough to ask the hard questions.  I always admired Lisa Demer's tenacity in interviewing and not being easily brushed off - starting back in 2007 at the political corruption trials and later in Juneau.

The last several nights @Auroranotify has been proclaiming northern lights and the sky's been clear, but I've only seen, one night, the palest-you-wouldn't-see-'em-if-you-weren't-looking-really-hard wisps of lights.  I just went out on the deck and nothing tonight either.