Snow, Sun, Bread, And Saving Lives

Tromped to the dentist for a cleaning this morning through the new snow.  Others had already created a path.  When I got home I shoveled a lot of snow.  

The sun crept into the bedroom this afternoon and hung a new picture on the wall.  I like it.  But it was only a temporary loan.

Yesterday I did the work.  This morning I pulled it out of the refrigerator, let it warm up, and put it in the oven.  This was a good one.  Rosemary olive.  

How professors can save lives:

Organızıng My Books/Free Online Photoshop Like Program/Black Water

I've got lots of books on lots of topics.  They're in bookshelves in different rooms, on tables, and other flat horizontal surfaces.  There are some stashed in the garage.  

I decided several weeks ago that I really need to sort through them.  Some can be traded in to Tidal Wave (a local used book store) but I they don't take all books and I hate to just throw books away.  

Here's the 'guest room'.  It was one of the kids' rooms, but they're long gone.  It's been a storage room on occasion, but we can clear it up if we need it for a guest.  I started taking books off the shelves and trying to put them into a more sensible order.  It's not that there is no order.  There are sections of different public administration related books.  But one of the problems with these book shelves is shelf size.  I can put related books together until we get some books that are too tall for that particular shelf.  

I also started a category I'm calling "books important to how I think."  These will be the books I'll most want to keep in the end.  

The picture above is a mashup of two pictures - it's basically what that corner of the room looks like, but a little distorted.  As you can see, I've been doing my sorting on the bed down there.  Another book sorting hazard is that I start reading the books.  

So as I was working on this, I thought, I should just google "how to sort home libraries."  There's lots of stuff out there.  One was just basic sorting ideas - Keep; Give Away, Throw out.  

But then I came upon LibraryThing.com.  Here's their overview of its uses:

WHAT’S GOOD?

• Catalog your books from Amazon, the Library of Congress and 4,941 other libraries.
• Catalog your movies and music too.
• LibraryThing is entirely free.
• Find new books to read.
• Talk about what you love with other committed bibliophiles.
• Track and lend your books.
• Snag a book from over 2000 early-release books every month.
• Available in many languages:                       (others)

My interest was to catalog my books and hopefully be able to sort lists by category.  There is a tag section, but I'm not sure how well that will sort things.  

It's fairly easy to make a list.  You can write down the title and then it shows you a bunch of covers for that book.  Then you click on the one that matches yours.  It fills out the form for you.  But I have a lot of older books - before, say, 1990.  Some of my covers didn't show up.  

That's when I discovered putting in the ISBN number was a better way to do this.  

So I've catalogued 14 books.  This could be a long project.  

When I looked at my list of 14 books I found one section particularly interesting.  It tells you how many people on Librarything have that book.  For some books it also tells you how many people are looking for a copy and how many are available.  Just in that 14 there were five or six books that people were looking for.  So maybe this will be a way to get rid of books.  

You can also see how many people near you have catalogued their books on Librarything.  Anchorage has a fair number of folks.  

So, I have one more long term task for my to do lists.  

Here are some more ideas for sorting your books from the American Library Association.

Photopea

I'd also note that the other day I came across a site called Photopea  It's essentially a free Photoshop knock off.  My access to Photoshop lapsed a while ago and I've played around with Sketchbook, but Photopea is a much better option.  But for those who haven't used Photoshop I'd warn you that it is daunting.  Lots to learn.  I took two semester long courses where I learned to use it.  On the other hand you can google most any question like "How do I make X in Photoshop?" and get a step by step youtube video telling you how.  

Photopea also says it has versions of other painting/drawing programs.  

I used Photopea to merge the two book photos.  It took about ten minutes, but then I've used Photoshop a lot. 

Black Water 

We had maybe an inch of fresh snow this morning and I had a doctor's appointment.  I took this photo of the creek flowing through the dorm area at UAA as I was walking back home.

I'm Keeping Busy So Here Are Some Recent Pictures

 Monday morning I biked over to the Century theater to see Amsterdam.  An odd hour to see a movie but that was the only time it was playing.  I liked it, but it was a bit odd at times, which is probably why I liked it.  It hasn't done well at the box office - it was a little too quirky I think and while it's message was a timely reminder of past attempts of Nazi's to take over the United States, it took too long to get there and then to spent too much time explaining itself.  

It was chilly - mid 20s - but sunny.  Even early afternoon, still just October, the sun doesn't get too high above the southern horizon these days.  So I did some errands and then went a bit out of my way to catch the Campbell Creek trail back home

It seemed that all the geese still in Anchorage were using the south of Tudor soccer fields in the old Trent homestead as a grass station before heading south.  

I used the pan feature on my phone since that was the only way I could get them all in.  But now they're so small you probably can't see them.  There's a mass in the middle to the left and more in front of the trees to the right.  

Today I was shoveling the new snow from the driveway.  I pulled out my phone to take a picture and noticed there was a voicemail message.  It turned out that what I thought was my 11am meeting was at 9:15.  I jumped in the car and wasn't too late and we had a good meeting.  But ever since my computer upgraded to the next California location named version of IOS, my calendar has not been my friend.  First it wiped out everything I'd had on my calendar. And today I realized it's not giving me the 24 hour notices it's supposed to give, so I don't get blindsided like I did today.  I ended up taking this picture when I got back.  

I left so fast for the meeting that I forgot to take our absentee ballots.  I after I actually got the driveway cleared - not too long, only a couple of inches - I went to the Election office to drop off my ballots.   I parked in front on the street behind this car.  

I saved this at a higher resolution so you could click on it and enlarge it (like I should have done with the geese.)  We were maybe 100 feet from the entrance to the Division of Elections.  I did point out that he was parked there and they said they'd get right on it.  But when I came out he was getting in the car and driving away.  

There is a sign on the front door about not campaigning - including bumper stickers, buttons, T-shirts, etc. within 200 feet of a polling place entrance.  

I do understand that if you have stickers on your car you need to park somewhere.  I'd like to give this car the benefit of the doubt and he just forgot or didn't know the distance rule.  But part of me thinks he enjoyed his little act of defiance.  The stickers almost look like they're holding the vehicle together.  

It's Been A Great, Busy Week With The Grandkids

A quick review of things we did.  

On the only day with any rain at all, we went downtown and walked the solar system from the sun to Mars, via the other planets on the way.  The next ones were too far away to walk.

There was a lot of time at the playground at Elderberry Park (where the Mars sign is), then off to watch people at Fish Creek, but folks said there fish weren't biting.  We went to the Refugee Assistance and Immigration Service farm in Mountain View to pick up some veggies and a Burmese soup.

We hiked up the Wolverine Peak trail to just above tree line.  We saw a moose in the distance.  

They all enjoyed watching the power of the water in Campbell Creek from the bridge on that trail.  

Then we met old friends who were headed for a three day backpacking trip and walked part of the way along Powerline Pass near Glen Alps.  

We went to the botanical garden where I gave S my old camera and she took some great pictures.  (I'll put five stars under her pictures. Two stars for the pictures her brother took.)

*****

*****

Then on up the road to the Campbell Airstrip bridge where they rode their bikes.  They also dropped sticks into the water from one side of the bridge then raced over to see it come out the other side and down the creek til they couldn't see it any more.  

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We made wishes before blowing the dandelion seeds.

Then yesterday, on their last full day here we headed south.  A short stop at McHugh Creek.

*****

Then to the Wild Animal Park.  I'd been there once, a long time ago, with a group.  Then it was all drive through.  Now you can walk or drive, but walking lets you see things you can't see driving.  

*****

And finally to Byron Glacier.  We've watched it shrink and shrink over the years.  But yesterday was a great day to visit.  It was shorts and t shirt weather and you could walk up the remaining ice.  There's a skeletal remains of snow and ice still on the mountain above.  This won't be here much longer, but the kids loved climbing up through the snow.  

That's some of the highlights.  There was a lot of biking too which they seem to truly love.  It was a good week sharing Alaska with the little ones (and their parents too.)  Sadly took them to the airport today.  

Campbell Creek Yesterday And Last Year - Big Difference

 Weather, from one year to another, in one particular location, doesn't tell us anything about climate change.  For that you need data over many years and many locations.  

But, for whatever reasons - more snow, lower spring temperatures, etc. - Campbell Creek - from the bridge at Lake Otis - was almost completely iced over on April 15, 2021.  

But yesterday (March 30, 2022), I took the bike out for the first time to check out conditions and here's what Campbell Creek looked like.

Whatever the reasons, we are way ahead of last year.  

Cell phones let us quickly retrieve old photos to be able to do a comparative post like this.  

We Go To Alaska For The Afternoon

 We drove south to McHugh Creek where the spring tends to come a little sooner than in Anchorage.  It's good to just get out where there are just trees and mountains and water.  

The trail was sometimes snow, often ice (soft ice because it was well above freezing), dirt, wooden boardwalk, mud, and frozen mud. 

We heard ravens and this was our only sign of moose or bear.

We stopped at Potter Marsh on the way back.  Snow is gone, Water is still mostly ice.  Saw a few gulls.

Good day.