What's Keeping Me From Blogging?

So much . . .

Weekly trips to pick up our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) [It's a USDA website so go quick before the regime either takes it down because it's too 'woke' or it crashes from neglect or incompetence.]

They use salt - some Alaska salt - and mix it with things for use in cooking, eating, and making your house smell better, like in the simmer pots.  

I've highlighted soap artist (seriously, what she does is art!)  Kit before.  She showed me a prototype of a soap she's working on that will have a Rorschach test on it.  I asked if there are psychiatrist interpretations included.  Those, she assured me, would cost a lot more.  Learn more at MirthAlaska.com. 

There was a long line at the WIC table.  This market is in the lowest income area of Anchorage and the Grow North Farm here - sponsored by RAIS (Refugee Assistance and Immigration Service), a part of Catholic Social Services - is an urban farm worked by refugees.  

It was gray and threatening, but not raining all that day, but it finally came down on the ride home.  It was so light it really only got my clothes slightly damp.  And my odometer with drops.

I've gone past my 1600 km goal for the summer - one reason I guess I haven't blogged as much.  All that biking along Anchorage's green bike paths has been good for my physical and mental health during this disastrous time in US history.  

The picture below was on an earlier ride on the Campbell Creek south trail.  And I'm delaying today's ride to get this post up.

The mushroom isn't connected to anything else in this post, but of course mushrooms and fungus in general are connected to everything underground.  You can't really tell but this one was five or six inches across.  Growing right next to the compost pile.  

  
                                                                      

Again, a somewhat random picture here.  Walking down the steps after a routine doctor visit at Providence, I was greeted with the lovely sounds of live piano music.  The acoustics in the huge atrium entrance are great and the notes pulled me over to listen to the end and thank the musician.

Our power, phone/internet went out during the windstorm a week ago Friday.  This downed cottonwood was the culprit.  Chugach Electric had the power back on the next morning when we woke up.  Alaska Communications took until Tuesday or Wednesday to come out and then they didn't have the equipment to fix it right, so while the phone line and internet are back on, the wire is lying on the ground and about two feet off the ground in some places I have to walk.  In what world is that acceptable?  Alaska Communications is so terrible!  The techs I have to call now and then and those who come out to the house are generally very good.  It's just the management that has promised me fiber every summer since 2023 and not delivered that pisses me off.  And the website that has the circle of death spinning hopelessly when I try to pay online, and then they charge me a %25 late fee because I couldn't pay online.  With no grace period.  None.  Visa emails me three days before to remind me to pay my bill.  ACS emails three days after it's due to say, "We screwed you again."  I'm ready to cut that cord forever.  

Got that off my chest.  

Our neighbor did hook us up to his power with a series of extension cords to power the refrigerator since we didn't know how long it was going to take to get the power back.  We decided to go to Queen of Sheba for dinner that night.  Here's David, the owner and chef, chatting with us after our meal.  

Ethiopian food is truly special and delicious.  Anchorage folks, go eat there and keep them in business.  The prices are reasonable for this day and age.  

It's between Northern Lights and Benson - on Dawson.  

So, probably this should have been three or four blog post spread over the week.  

But I'm not done.  I've been reading several books at once, but I'll just highlight Caraval.  This was a recommendation from my 12 year old granddaughter.  When I told her I was number 25 on the waiting list at Loussac Library, she said, "I told you that you'll never get it."

But I got an email saying it was mine to pick up.  I understand why people read it.  Each chapter ends with a cliffhanger of sorts.  And I think the author has synesthesia, because every feeling is associated with a color, some vibrating.  Lots more descriptions of odors than you normally see too.  And I don't think Nancy Drew ever had chills from the touch of a young man's bare chest leaning against her. 

I'd say this teen fiction is the gateway drug to adult romance fiction.  

Moving along - I'm still overwhelmed with the barrage of outrageous statements and actions spewing from the White House.  Here are a few images that I've saved as I try to find new ways to ask my junior US Senator how long he thinks he can wade in this filth before he is sucked under completely.  He gleefully points at what he sees as 'wins' for Alaska, while the president tramples the constitution by kidnapping people off the streets, invading US cities with our military, ignoring judge's orders, bombing boaters in international waters, gerrymandering Texas to squeeze out Democratic house seats, and on and on and on.  I didn't even mention Epstein.  And Dan Sullivan turns a blind eye to all of that in exchange for some oil drilling permits.  

My previous post was on the normalization of the word normalization.  Nothing could illustrate that point better than this post by His Travesty.   

What previous president could have done something like this and not been impeached?  Some say it's just 'a humorous bit' but I did a paper on government humor once.  What I learned was that government humor that is self deprecating is fine, but government humor that punches down is NOT fine.  

And then his Vice Travesty defends another military operation off the coast of Venezuela:

Has anyone seen any evidence that these are cartel members (just like we haven't seen any evidence that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was a member of Tren de Aragua gang)?

I copied this one for Labor Day.  We're back to the time when business owners could call on the government to bring in troops to break up labor unions.  And when I say 'break up' I mean that literally.  But they stood in solidarity until they won their rights which have benefited most of us.  (You know, 40 day weeks, paid overtime, health benefits, the right to grieve bad treatment, etc.)  We have to be as brave and persistent now to prevent what's happening today.  

I don't believe ignorance is greater now than it was.  But the propaganda forces of the fascists have powerfully taken advantage of that ignorance, and the latent fears of white America.  They've taken all the damage to the working classes done by exporting jobs and increasing the income gap and blamed it on Black people and immigrants.  

 I remember when the first polio vaccines became available and we got poked at school.  My small pox vaccine scar no longer really shows, but I was inoculated.  

Public health programs have saved more lives than medical treatment of individuals.   As I look for good links to explain the importance of public health to society, I see that some of the most important public health initiatives - clean water and sewage systems - are so taken for granted that they aren't even mentioned.  But we haven't always had clean water and sewage systems.  And parts of the world still don't have them.  

President Nixon famously had an enemies list.  But no president has ever, so blatantly used the powers of the federal government to go after his perceived enemies.  The president is publicly telling the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute people who oppose him.  And as a blogger, I found this cartoon a bit close to home.  

I tell myself I'm just a tiny voice out in the wilderness and they have much bigger targets than me.  But I also notice that Google says my recent posts have way more hits that I usually get.  Stat Counter has always shown far fewer hits than Google, but they also track individual visitors.  I can't tell if I really have more hits or whether there are more bots.  In times past when there were lots more hits, it looked like someone scraping my blog for content, and more recently for AI.  But when that happens you can see a single user going to thirty or more different pages per day.  So many hits on a single page is different.  

In any case, I want people to stay strong and be engaged in fighting this regime to preserve our democracy (not to mention our health and economy and general well being.)  Do what you can.  And take breaks to laugh, enjoy nature, good friends.   Find like minded people.  And know your rights.  

And a teaser for a post I hope to put up this week.  

From Animalspot.net

Grow North Farm, Muldoon Saturday Market, Stand Up For John Lewis

 These are some of the veggıes I pıcked up last week from Grow North Farm.  By subscribing to the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) I pick up a selection of vegetables they select from what is ready to harvest each week.  You can see

I got a basic recipe for turnip greens online, but spruced it up.  It came with onions and garlic.  In addition to the turnip greens (which I steamed withwhite wine) and added walnut pieces, raisins, and hot sauce.

I thought it was great.  My wife ate it, which is always a positive.  

She made the turnips and cooked up the kale the next night.  

There were two booths selling non-food items.  And that many selling vegetables.  Some of that may be due to it being early in the season and not that much is ready to harvest.  But refugees raise the crops at this farm and wonder how much ICE fear is impacting the market.  And I'm trying to figure out ways to let you know how to contact vendors without making that information easily collectable.  Photos probably.  Mirthalaska.com

The soaps were amazing.  The fragrance was not overpowering (like a certain department store that no longer has a location in Anchorage) and the designs are spectacular.  They almost look like they belong in a bakery.  

This "is a seed from the ivory palm in South American rainforests" according to the bookmark sized card the vendor passed out.  It's an ivory alternative.

The necklaces below are made from this Tagua Ivory.  The card also says, "I design in Alaska, and our products are made in Columbia."   www.lajoyatagua.com  From the website:

"The main mission of LA JOYA is to empower women in Colombia who have been the victims of social problems.

Through developing jewelry made from natural seeds, in sustainable ways, we are preserving the environment and contributing to the social development of communities."

​

This was a week ago Thursday.  

That Saturday I went to the market on Muldoon.  Chanshtnu Park.  

I'm not sure if it's just early and people are waiting for other things to ripen or people are concerned about ICE showing up.  Many of the food vendors at this market were refugees in the past.  Someone else suggested there were just too many farmers' markets competing.  

Eclectic Cal describes this booth well.  The key things I saw were the carved walking sticks (lower right behind the blue jug) and the chaga.  Cal also took part in the musical part of the market.  He also offered chaga tea so people could taste it.

Cleveland Clinic has a page on Chaga:

"Sure, you’ve heard of portobello and shiitake mushrooms. But have you heard of chaga mushrooms?

Typically found in Siberia, the fungi have been used throughout history to boost immunity thanks to it being full of antioxidants."

And in Alaska too.  On birch trees.  An Alaska Native gentleman carrying his very young grandson knew what chaga was.  Something he'd collected.   

And this is Alizka.  She grew up in the mountains in Romania and is right at home gathering wild edibles and medicines here as well.  We didn't talk about nationality (though she speaks Hungarian as well as Romanian and English) and she agreed to the photo, but I've smudged her face just to be on the safe side. (I hate having to do this.) She offered a blueberry and (some kind of seaweed from the Atlantic) paste that has some crazy high percentage of vitamins and minerals people need.  She also had a lot of different salves.  you can contact her at novalunaherbals@gmail.com.  

I was back to get my weekly allotment of veggies at Grow North again this past Thursday and from there I biked to the Park Strip for the celebration of John Lewis.  I'm behind in my blogging so I'll leave it at that rather than try to add more.  Let me get this up first.  

If you want to Stand Up, this is an organization that is coordinating with lots of others working to 

"To stand up for social, housing, environmental, economic, and racial justice across the state of Alaska. We are a BIPOC led 501c4 that uses direct action to confront systemic injustice, mobilize community, and amplify underrepresented voices." (From the Stand Up Alaska website.)

 

 They have zoom orientations on Wednesdays at 7pm and I went this past Wednesday to find out what all they're doing.  Their website will help out.  I'd recommend the Wednesday night zoom.  Just click on the Action Alaska zoom and will tell you how to connect.  I got a full orientation and got to ask lots of questions.  

How To Make Quarantine Enjoyable And Productive

There are ways to put a little low cost luxury into your cocoons until we become post COVID-19 butterflies.  Instead of whining about what you don't have.




We started the day off with an out of the ordinary (for us) breakfast.  It was wonderful.  It's not hard to do.  But if you don't have a waffle iron, you can make pancakes or French toast.







And in these months of never-ending hand washing, get some really nice soap.  When we cleaned out my mothers house after she died, we found lots of wonderful soap.

We still have a few bars left.

On top is an I. Magnum French milled bar.  It smells so good, I may just keep it for sniffing now and then.  In the middle is Origins Lime and Geranium, and then the Yardley April violets.  The other three are soaps we bought in the San Telmo weekend market last summer in Buenos Aires.  A husband and wife make the soap, under the name Paskarito.  These are glycerin based soaps.

The price of many good soaps is less than what many people pay for a coffee these days, and a soap can last you several weeks or more.  For example










I went back and found this picture at the market where we bought the soaps.  She's mixing ingredients here.  (I also saw how many pictures I took that never got to the blog!)










And you can also go pull books off the shelves and read.  All those books you've never gotten too.  Or the ones you've promised yourself to read again.  And magazines too.  The only one I intentionally subscribe to is The Sun.  There's always one big interview (this month with Randy Blazak on why white supremacy persists), short stories, poems, a readers write section (a different topic each month and this month is 'shortcuts').  And there are black and white photos, "Sunbeams" (quotes on a selected topic, which this month seems to be 'masculinity').   I'm

"The American ideal of masculinity . . . has created cowboys and Indians, good guys and bad guys, punks and studs, tough guys and softies, butch and faggot, black and white.  It is an ideal so paralytically infantile that it is virtually forbidden - as an unpatriotic act - that the American boy evolve into the complexity of manhood"   - James Baldwin 

"I do like men who come out frankly and own that they are not gods."  - Louisa May Alcott, Jo's Boys

"There be certain times in a young man's life when, through great sorrow or sin, all the boy in him is burnt and seared away so that he passes at one step to the more sorrowful state of manhood."  Rudyard Kipling, "The Dream of Duncan Parrenness"

I've only just started Overstory by Richard Powers.  I love the The Echo Maker  which had sandhill cranes as an integral physical and metaphorical role in the book.  I'm not too far into Overstory but it's clearly about the importance of trees to humans and to the earth.

And for those of you who have little ones home with you, challenge their curiosity.  Make learning an adventure.  There's so much available online that even with the libraries closed, there's lots to do.  For example:

 http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/gamesactivities.html,

http://www.kidsites.com/sites-edu/art.htm

https://www.puzzle-maker.com/CW

https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/easy-recipes-for-kids-to-make-by-themselves/


And don't forget - forced isolation means you can get your income taxes done on time this year.  Or you can clean out that closet you've been avoiding.

Lists are a good way to get more done in less time.  Just a thought.  While you're eating your waffles.