Late Spring, Short Bike Ride, Experience With Instacart, And Seeds

This was our front lawn on March 5, 2015.

This was our front lawn on March 19, 2020 in comparison.









And below was our front lawn on March 30, 2020.  (The base of the tree is in the upper left.) Just the beginning of the earth being revealed by the sublimating snow and ice.  We're way behind this year.  At least from the last ten years or so.  We've gotten used to global warming.  But this has been a winter where the temperatures were mostly below 'normal'.

The ice between the sidewalk (that I try to keep clear) and the street is still thick, but the sunny days (even when it hasn't been above freezing), and my ice-chipping are starting to make a difference.



We've been pretty good about self-isolating.  I try and get out in the back or front yard every day and tinker around. J goes for a much longer walk.  There aren't many people out and staying six feet away isn't hard to do.

Yesterday I even got the bike out and it felt wonderful.
I didn't go very far - I saw three people walking abreast ahead of me and knew I couldn't pass them with six feet, so I turned off into a parking lot and looped back home via the alley where there was still some ice and snow on the ground - I was using the bike with the studded tires.




We also tried out Fred Meyer's home delivery.  I think it would have been faster to walk to the grocery, get our stuff, and walk home, than it was just ordering on the app.  We had to look through so many items to find what we wanted.  When I tried searching it didn't find it.  But later it did.  I think you have to be in the right department when you search.    And I'm sure it will be easier next time.  Then when I was going to check out, it had something next to most items about being out of stock and were substitutes acceptable.  For some I said no.  For others I put in conditions.  I really had no idea how it would work.  But I was uncomfortable with someone making substitutes.  As it turned out, it was fine.  The shopper texted when she started and asked about substitutions before making them.  I think there was just one - one brand of yogurt for another.  And she texted about items that weren't there - like alcohol swabs.

The point was to not be out amongst people exposing either of us to the virus since we're in the high risk age group.  And since I couldn't get tested, I have no clear sense of whether what I had (the cough still lingers, but I cough less frequently) was COVID-19.   But when I saw our shopper get out of the car at the bottom of the driveway and then slowly, almost painfully, lug up the two bags to the doorstep, I felt terrible.  If she wasn't also in the high risk age group, she certainly walked like she was.

So that was my introduction to Instacart, which really hadn't been on my radar.  It was just under $10 extra for someone to shop and deliver for us.  A company called Instacart does it.  This is the gig economy and like with Lyft there are upsides and downsides.  In our case, we connected with the market, not Instacart.  And our shopper may have gotten several other people's orders at the same time.  We only live about 1.5 miles from the market.

Gigworker.com did an analysis of Instacart the other day that you can look at.  In any case, there's no the extra hazard pay for potentially getting the virus.  I left more tip than they suggested, but what they suggested was pretty low.  But you also had to add the tip when you ordered, not after the delivery.   And then there's the question of how we deal with the groceries without knowing whether anyone who touched them has the virus.  I brought the bag in wearing gloves and put the veggies that needed refrigerating into an empty drawer to let them sit a couple of days.  When I got everything squared away, I washed my hands thoroughly.

One of the things I was happy to get from the market was seeds.  

I haven't planted too many vegies in recent years because our yard is so shaded by trees.  But it seems like a good idea to have some fresh veggies one can grow oneself this year.  And I do look forward to the early dandelion leaves - an abundant freebie in our yard that can be cooked in stir-fries and omelets.   They're very high in Vitamin A and K, and we don't use any pesticides in our yard.  

With the added part of the deck, we have a little more sunshine and we can use pots.  But I think the broccoli is the only thing I can plant early inside.  The others seem like they should go directly in the ground.  But maybe I can put some seeds in pots inside and then take them out when it's warm enough.  

And here's a last picture while I was sitting downstairs in what we call our greenhouse reading a book with the sun streaming in.  It's getting crowded down there and I've been trying to make room so I can plant some seeds.  

Pushing Around Leaves

The cottonwood trees in the back have been acting as personal trainers, giving me a certain number of new leaves each day to sweep up off the deck.  I think they used up their supply finally.

In front the mountain ash leaves have been dancing with the wind into different patterns on the driveway.

Looks a little like a map.

They tend to crowd together against steps and in corners.

And this October has allowed me time to procrastinate gathering up enough leaves to cover the various flower beds.  Yesterday was a record 54˚F in Anchorage, today was balmy again.  The low temperatures have been regularly higher than the normal lows.  You could say, well, it's just a blip, except we've had the 'warmest month ever' regularly this year.  

Cottonwood leaves covering the back yard.  I just need to rake up enough to get the flower beds covered.  There are some decaying amur maple leaves in the mix too.  

 And here's a small bed that I just used mountain ash leaves to mulch.

It's so wondrous that the trees give us this free mulch to protect the wintering plants from the cold and then this all goes into the compost heap where it becomes compost to fertilize everything next year.  

After all, that's what happens in untended forests every year.  Somehow they manage to maintain exquisite gardens without humans to take care of them.  

The Sun's Been With Us All Day

After several days of rain, the sun finally came out, and stayed out all day.

Went to the monthly Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL)  meeting.  This is the first time I remember that the main speaker was an Alaskan - from Ketchikan - Kiera O'Brien.    She's also a Harvard grad who was head of the Harvard Republicans, and she's organized a national group called Students for Carbon Dividends.

You can watch to the video of the national call here, and see the CCL website here. Kiera was on a delayed flight, so one of her co-workers Alexander Posner also participated.  He did an excellent job as well.

Now that most people accept the reality of Climate Change, it's important to know that there are things that can be done to reduce the impacts.   The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act is CCL's main focus.  It's  been called the most effective single act that can be done to reduce carbon.  You can learn more about that here.  If you feel you want to do something about climate change, I urge you to check the link and then call your members of Congress and tell them you want them to pass the Act.

Then a stop at the library to pick up a  book and then a short loop on the bike trail to enjoy the sunny - if chilly - morning.

The snow is much lower on the mountains that before the rain.  This is from the Alaska Native Medical Center campus.

Here are some late grasses shining in the morning sun.  As we go toward winter, the sun gets lower and lower on the horizon during the day.

There was ice on most of the puddles on the trail.

And here's a picture from yesterday.  Not sure where else to put it.  It's dinner at the Queen of Sheba Ethiopian restaurant last night.

I planted most of the leftover daffodil bulbs.  I've had mixed results in the past, but I'm going to be optimistic.  I hope I can post pictures of yellow flowers in the spring.

OLÉ Courts Class Does Tour of State Court Buildings Anchorage

This first picture is to remind my non-Alaskan readers that since we are post equinox, we're losing 5 minutes a day of daylight.  So waiting at the bus stop at 7:25am it was still dark!

Here's the courthouse directory on the wall.

We first stopped in a courtroom and Superior Judge Una Gandbhir talked about the kinds of cases she normally hears (civil) and answered questions.  OLÉ folks tend to have lots of questions.  The comment that got my attention was that there was a growing number of people who defend themselves these days.  Fortunately, someone else asked a follow up on that and she expanded.  This only works with civil cases (not criminal) and without a jury.  It's difficult if one side has an attorney and the other is self representing.  

In civil cases, there's no court appointed attorney for those who can't afford one, so that's probably one reason for this.  The judge also said there are lots of material available to help people find the forms they need and learn what they need to do.  

Here's a link to the Alaska Courts main self-help page.

I didn't know what the rules for photos was.  I know that reporters take pictures in state trials.  So I took this one as we were settling down and didn't take a picture when the judge came in.  

There's a tunnel between the Nesbitt and Boney Courthouses, that goes under the street.  We watched the video they show jurors, which I'd seen when I was called to jury duty.  It's quite good going explanations that jurors should hear about their role, the judges' role, the jury's role, etc.  

Then retired Superior Court Judge Elaine Andrews came in and started talking about work she's doing now to help educate people about the court system.  But time was short and we went back through the tunnel to the security office.   This office is responsible for the prisoners who come to court each week and they had a selection of cuffs on the table.  After that we got to see the room where they monitor all the security cameras - including the cells with awaiting prisoners.  We could see some of the cells from that room.  It did not look like a cheerful space.  And I was thinking I'm glad I'm taking the Innocence Project class at the same time as this one.  

Then back through the tunnel to the Boney Courthouse and up to the Supreme Court chamber, where I wanted to be Wednesday afternoon to hear the case of the Alaska youths suing the state for policies (development of oil and gas) which endanger their future by worsening climate change.  I had been up here once when i was covering redistricting.  It's a much nicer space than the cells we'd just been in.

Appellate Judge Tracy Wollenberg was our host here.  She talked about conditions for appealing a case.  A small percentage of cases actually go to trial.  So those that do are people who feel strongly and she said a large number appeal.

She did point out that in Alaska only criminal cases go to the appellate court and are heard by three judges.

Civil cases that are appealed go directly to the Supreme Court.  But the court only hears a relatively few cases.  I think I got that right, but check before you bet money on that.

The tour was over at 10 am (we met at 8:15am) and it was plenty light out by then.  We didn't have any snow in the Anchorage bowl yet, but someone on the tour said there was snow falling (but not sticking) at her Hillside home.  Not sure where this truck started out this morning.

A Recovery Day

That's me, like the sun, trying to see through the clouds.  101˚F, chest full of crud.  It wasn't quite that bad yesterday when I went to my OLÉ classes.  But I did try to sit away from others.

I'm staying in today.  I'm not good at being sick  I'm drinking lots of hot water with honey.  But I'll try to get some stuff done.

The sun has broken through a couple of times.  The trees are losing their leaves.  I do want to write a bit about SB 91 - the criminal justice reform bill that was essentially repealed this year because that was the main topic of our state and federal courts class yesterday.  And also about how our class talked about homelessness (the other class) while waiting for the speaker to come.  Actually, it was a good thing we had time to get to know each other better.

Solstice Is Past And It's Fall In Anchorage

There's more termination dust.





Ravens Roost had an apple festival the other night.

There were clouds in   Goose Lake.

Trees are getting yellow and losing their leaves.

I got some radishes on the last day of the Muldoon Farmers Market for this year.

And this woodpecker visited our yard today.  

Anchorage Gets Termination Dust, Finally

The first dusting of snow on the mountains by Anchorage lore, marks the end of summer.  This change, in the past, more often than not, came in August.  It doesn't mean it's sticking, but it's clearly white up there.

Well, this Fall Solstice day (I always have to check because the exact date changes slightly each year, so it seems this year, it's not today, but tomorrow) comes one day after the first termination dust.  (And, technically, I suppose it came yesterday, but the clouds didn't clear until today.)

Great views as I bike this afternoon.

Sept 5, 2019: Warm And Sunny; Recall Dunleavy Delivers 49K signatures; 329,574,686 People Did NOT Die In USA Today

Today began with a vain attempt to see the Northern Lights that @AuroraNotify was reporting on Twitter.  It was cloudy in Anchorage.  But they were cool clouds.

It was so nice that after completing my errands, I headed for the Campbell Creek trail heading south.  I wish, when people ask me how I can live in Alaska, that I could get them on this or any of the other greenbelt trails in Anchorage.  Right through the middle of urban neighborhoods these bike trails are like going through a magic door into the woods.  Here's a bit of beginning fall foliage as I cross a bridge just past Minnesota.

On the way back I stopped to watch some ducks at Taku Lake.

Meanwhile, the Recall Dunleavy campaign had delivered 49,006 signatures to the Division of Elections.  They needed 28,000 or so to qualify for verification of 28,000 valid signatures and then review by the Lt. Governor's office (Lt. Gov is in charge of elections), to be sure it meets the grounds for a recall petition.  Given the various lawyers who scrutinized the language - including the person who has written the Department of Law posted opinions on what you need to qualify for a recall petition (and who was fired by Dunleavy in the first day or two he was in office), I'm confident it meets the letter of the law.  Not all that confident the Lt. Governor's office will see it that way, but if it doesn't, I still trust the Alaska Supreme Court to rule based on the law.

Once the recall petition is approved a new petition will need some 70,000 plus signatures to get it on the ballot.  A record warm and dry summer made it pretty easy to get signatures the first time round.  Doing the same will take a little more grit when (someone suggested 'if') the weather gets more bracing.  But 49,000 signatures in just over a month was way more and way faster than has ever been done in Alaska.  All those folks need to sign again for the next petition and then another 30,000 or 40,000 (to insure enough valid signatures) and it's ready for the ballot.

Unlike Wisconsin and Kansas where the Koch brothers (someone suggested Koch brothers is like a brand that doesn't need to be adjusted to reflect David's passing) have installed their puppets to destroy those state governments, most of Alaska's Republican legislators did NOT go along with the attempted cuts.  And those attempted, and the less drastic, but still nasty cuts affected so many people that everyone has a reason to get rid of Dunleavy.  There will be an expensive Outside Koch funded campaign to keep the governor.  The Republican Governor's Association made this totally perfunctory and bullshit (sorry, I can't sugar coat this) statement:

"WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Republican Governors Association released the following statement from Executive Director Dave Rexrode in response to the recall effort launched against Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy:
'Since taking office, Governor Dunleavy has served as the People’s Governor, fighting for a better future for all Alaskans and taking on the special interests. Under his leadership unemployment is at its lowest level in years and he continues to work to attract jobs and economic development to the state. The RGA stands behind Governor Dunleavy against this recall effort by partisan special interests seeking to halt Alaska’s tremendous progress.'”

This is all generalities which can't be backed up by facts.  Expect more of this and others' propaganda to get much better focused on pushing Alaskan buttons once it's clear the recall will be on the ballot.  Here's a look at some of their media buys.  $58 million to Target Enterprises.  And we know that Alaskans for Prosperity, Koch's Alaska chapter of the Americans for Prosperity, will pander hard.

But Alaska is small enough and  enough people have seen behind the curtain of the Wizard of Wasilla, that I think the recall will prevail.  This is a bi-partisan effort.  Hey Trump, you want another Alaskan governor from Wasilla to replace Pence?  He should be available by late Spring 2020.

Sorry Alaskans, you know all this already.  It's for people Outside.

I didn't realize I was going to write so much, so I'd planned one more item about today.

329,574,686 People Did NOT Die In USA Today  

Of course I can't know precisely.  I used the Current US Population which monitors the US population second by second, and The United States Death Clock which does the same with deaths and says 7,453 people, on average die each day.  So those are averages.  But it's good enough to come up with a reasonably close number to remind everyone that most people in the US did NOT die today.  Despite the headlines we see and hear everyday in the media, a tiny, tiny fraction of 1% of the US population dies in a day.

Yes, let's try to lower the number of unnecessary deaths like:

• gun deaths per year (36,383)
• homeless deaths (921 last year in LA County alone)
• unintentional injury deaths (169,963)

But let's also remember that death is part of life.  Don't let the media's focus on the unusual distort your sense of how safe or unsafe you are.  I believe that every story about death in the news should include the number of people who did NOT die, to help people keep things in perspective.

And to close this off - when you bike, you see things drivers miss, like this poster.

I didn't even know there were 905 channels (maybe not all have programming) in Anchorage.  The best I could find on this was not quite a year ago in the ADN.

It's Spring

It's definitely spring.  Even with mostly cloudy days, it's warmer and the plants are starting to wake up.   I rode over the the Botanical Garden the other day on my new bike.  I was able to trade in my old bike - the one the physical therapist said wasn't good for my knee - after about 35 years.

The peonies are in various stages from not even poking out yet, to just coming in as these in the left,










to looking like a real plant like the ones below.

And this oxlip primrose was actually blooming already.

Back home I knew we had a tulip bud that was well along.  

But I didn't realize we too had something blooming - there was one bleeding heart flower out.






We also had a visitor.  If you look closely you can see that something has dined on these lilies.  The most likely culprit is a moose.

And yesterday these white scuff marks weren't on the cement at the bottom of our front steps.  I wouldn't have figured moose hooves if it weren't for the lily.  There's still a lot left.  Maybe it didn't taste too good.

Signs Of Spring (And Fixing Card Reader)

It's the last day of March 2019, and it's been one of the warmest on record.  Our front yard is clear of snow and the back yard only has snow in the shade of the house.  And I'm avoiding talking about anything depressing by showing you a couple of pictures instead.

A small gift pile from a visiting moose to help fertilize the soil.

The first tulip to poke out of the soil and leaf mulch.

I was finishing breakfast, reading the newspaper on the deck when I heard the tapping behind me.  It was on a neighbor's old cottonwood tree.  But I can't tell if it's a Downy or Hairy Woodpecker.  It seemed pretty big, which would lean toward a Hairy.  If we could see the beak, we could tell.  And a better birder would know.

And finally, inside, the hoya is blooming.

This is not as sharp as I would like because I took it with my phone.  My MacBook Pro card reader stopped working the other day.  But I had to use my good camera with the telephoto lens to get the woodpecker, so I googled and found some video tricks to fix the card reader.  The first one - blow air into the opening - didn't work.  The second one - put alcohol on a piece of paper towel and wrap it around the sound card and put it in the card reader - didn't work either.  The third one - said to go to launchpad and click on 'image control'.  I had to find it in launchpad's search.  But it didn't fix the problem.  Finally, another video said to 1) turn off the computer 2) clean the brass colored part of the sound card with alcohol 3) insert it and remove it from the card reader ten times, and 4) turn the computer back on.  And then it worked again. (I had turned off the computer after #1, and it didn't work.)

Tomorrow, the first quarter of the year will be over.  So remember, don't sit here wasting time on the computer (do things that are important only) and go out and enjoy the world.