We're Back In This Strangely Warm And Smoky Anchorage

Coming home after a time away means getting back into the routine.

The non-stop from LA is a nearly five hour flight.  (The same as Buenos Aires to Lima)   We didn't get pre-check, but they bumped us up to first class which was nice.  The lights below us kept reminding me we had left LA, not Seattle.  Eventually, the descent began.  It was 3:30am and when I looked out the window, I could see bits of the Chugach peaks and glaciers, though the ground was still fairly dark despite the dawning horizon.

Soon we were home.  It was hot and stuffy when we opened the door.  We dragged our stuff in and found the box of mail our house sitter had gathered.  He also left our fridge with lots of goodies including Korean takeout.  Thanks C!

After sorting some mail - why did GCI send us a bill?  We don't have GCI.  The bill was for $0, but why?  I crashed and slept til about 10am.  The toilet upstairs had been disabled - the note said it kept filling with water, so this was to shut it off.  The deck was full of aphid sap or honeydew - from Wikipedia:

"Honeydew is a sugar-rich sticky liquid, secreted by aphids and some scale insects as they feed on plant sap. When their mouthpart penetrates the phloem, the sugary, high-pressure liquid is forced out of the anus of the aphid. Honeydew is particularly common as a secretion in hemipteraninsects and is often the basis for trophobiosis.^[1] Some caterpillars of Lycaenidae butterflies and some moths also produce honeydew.^[2]Honeydew can cause sooty mold—a bane of gardeners—on many ornamental plants. It also contaminates vehicles parked beneath trees, and can then be difficult to remove from glass and bodywork. Honeydew is also secreted by certain fungi, particularly ergot.^[3]Honeydew is collected by certain species of birds, wasps, stingless bees^[4] and honey bees, which process it into a dark, strong honey(honeydew honey). This is highly prized in parts of Europe and Asia for its reputed medicinal value. Parachartergus fraternus, a eusocial wasp species, collects honeydew to feed to their growing larvae.^[5] Recent research has also documented the use of honeydew by over 40 species of wild, native, mostly solitary bees in California.^[6]"

This leaf is full of shiny, sticky honeydew as is the wood of the deck.  In fact the whole deck was sticky as were the deck chairs.  Eventually I hosed it down so we could sit out there.

Also did some serious watering in the yard.  The record high temperatures along with the lack of rain has had a serious effect in the yard. Our house sitter did water the raspberries up on the top of the hill.  It's odd though - parts of the yard look fine - the high bush cranberry is lush and the little ferns are healthy, but in other parts, some are wilted, even crinkly dried out.  And there's new planting work I didn't finish due to the rebuilding of the deck.  Lots of cotton wood shoots here and there.

Emptied suitcases - well we each had a small rollon suitcase and backpack, so not too much.  Found the things that seemed to be missing - a t-shirt I'd bought in Buenos Aires as well as a puzzle for my San Francisco nieta.  (A much easier word to write than granddaughter.)

Then I double checked on Youtube about what I needed to fix the toilet - here's the seal that was the problem - and rode over to get a new seal.

My route to Lowe's let's me bike through the Helen Louise McDowell Sanctuary, which was particularly relaxing yesterday.  The vegetation is shrinking the boardwalk a bit.  Nature landscaped this park, not CarlosThays.  People just added the boardwalks.

Got my new seal and rode home.  Not all the way as wonderful as the Sanctuary.  Also had to ride along Tudor.  But after Buenos Aires and Santiago, Tudor, one of Anchorage's busiest streets, looks pretty rural.  But it was a hot Sunday so there wasn't much traffic.  And the air is still smoky, hazing the mountains in the background.

It's nice to be doing this post on my MacBook instead of the iPad I got for the trip.  Blogger works here without all the bugs it has on the iPad.  But I did figure out some workarounds to make it possible to post, though not easily.  I might do a post on that for people struggling with it.

More to do as we ease back into Alaska.

Sunrise Seattle

We're on the move again.  To help our son with the other grandkids while his wife is traveling for work.  As cool as it is to take the ferry back and forth to Bainbridge Island, it makes the trip to the airport a long one - especially when you have to go early because the next ferry would be cutting it close.  But an advantage of getting up early is the sunrise.

Here's a closer view of downtown Seattle.

These are with the good camera.  We're normally good at keeping our luggage down to a minimum, but this time we worked on getting rid of all unnecessary weight.  So for quick pictures, I'm going to go with the phone.  My Canon Powershot stayed behind.  No books this time.  Some magazines.  We're down to two backpacks and a relatively small duffel bag.  But this is only a short trip - returning Wednesday.

There are repeated announcements for the flight at the gate next to ours.  It's going to Puerta Vallarta and they're calling passengers to check their passports.  The announcement:  "If you hear your name, or something like it, please come to the counter."

Recycled Piano And Other Seattle Shots

Just outside the Bainbridge Island post office, there's an old piano for folks to play.  Above are some close ups.  Below is the whole piano along with the keyboard painted bench.  My granddaughter's fingers discovered many ways to make music.

Sunrise this morning.  At that point I wasn't sure if it was clear or cloudy.  It was cloudy.  After taking my son and his family to the airport for their trip home, we went for lunch at the houseboat of an old friend from Anchorage.

Glorious Morning

Here's what I saw this morning when a friend dropped her 3 month old off.  This isn't a regular gig, but they needed some back up and when we're far from our grandkids, we're more than happy to help out now and then.

Today would also be my step-father's 100th birthday.  And it's the anniversary of my father's death.  So having new life around is wonderful.  We raked some leaves this morning and now she's napping so I have a moment to post something, but nothing too long.

I'd note that Yom Kippur begins at sunset tonight as well and from sunset today until sunset tomorrow we fast.  It will be time to ask forgiveness for all the wrongs we've done to others over the year and to forgive those who have wronged us.  Even if one doesn't believe in God, one can take part in these important acts.  From ReformJudaism:

"Yom Kippur means "Day of Atonement" and refers to the annual Jewish observance of fasting, prayer and repentance. Part of the High Holidays, which also includes Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur is considered the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. In three separate passages in the Torah, the Jewish people are told, "the tenth day of the seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be a sacred occasion for you: You shall practice self-denial."(Leviticus 23:27). Fasting is seen as fulfilling this biblical commandment. The Yom Kippur fast also enables us to put aside our physical desires to concentrate on our spiritual needs through prayer, repentance and self-improvement. 

Yom Kippur is the moment in Jewish time when we dedicate our mind, body, and soul to reconciliation with God, our fellow human beings, and ourselves. We are commanded to turn to those whom we have wronged first, acknowledging our sins and the pain we might have caused. At the same time, we must be willing to forgive and to let go of certain offenses and the feelings of resentment they provoked in us. On this journey we are both seekers and givers of pardon. Only then can we turn to God and ask for forgiveness: 'And for all these, God of forgiveness, forgive us, pardon us, and grant us atonement.'”

Solstice Just 11 Days Away

9:50 am Anchorage December 10, 2015

10:40 am Anchorage Dec. 10, 2015

According to Time And Date:

The December solstice is on either December 20, 21, 22 or 23.

The North Pole is tilted furthest from the Sun.

It is the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, where it is the shortest day of the year.

In the Southern Hemisphere, it is the summer solstice and the longest day of the year.

December Solstice in Anchorage, Alaska, U.S.A. is on
Monday, December 21, 2015 at 7:49 PM AKST(Change city)

December Solstice in Universal Coordinated Time is on
Tuesday, December 22, 2015 at 04:49 UTC

And then, days start getting longer.

What's A Blogger To Do? Too Much To Write About - LIO Scandal, Forced Arbitration, Trump's Good Old Days, Hockey

Me:  Even with the gain of an hour overnight as we set our clocks back,  there's not enough time!
Jiminy Cricket:  Of course there is Steve, you just have to prioritize.
Me:  Actually, the number of things we could do has increased so fast that humans will soon be obsolete, we just can't keep up.  It used to be we maybe had two newspapers to read, now every newspaper in the world is available online.  Not to mention every home video anyone has ever made.
Jiminy Cricket:  You going to complain all morning or write?
Me:  OK, OK.  So, my first glimpse of November 2015 was an inspiring one as I looked out the window at what should have been 9:24am, but because of the time change was only 8:24am.  And if you look closely you can see the snow that we got Friday still lingering.


So, what's stacking up in the blog pile?  Anchorage International Film Festival (AIFF) posts on documentaries, shorts, animation, and maybe even Alaska films in competition.  I try to get some of those groups done before the festival begins and this year I have the features in competition up already.  I don't have to think too hard on these, just go looking for info on the films.  And the AIFF 2015 page is started already.  That's up on top and I'll be updating general festival strategy stuff from last year and information on the films for this year.

I've got more to do on the Chuitna decision which the resource development community is upset about and has appealed.  There are some significant democratic principle issues at stake there that should be explored.  But it's complicated and people have lots of other things to distract them (back up to complaints about too little time above.)

I want to post more on my new, evolving relationship with my sourdough starter.

I'm working on something on rules - what they do for us, but how to keep from becoming trapped by them.   There are some books I want to say something about, some movies, how Netflix and other online movie sites are changing things, more on the conflicts between police and African-Americans  . . .  But serious posts require some time and thought and if I take on a subject, I want to look at it differently than others, not just reprint what others write.

Then there are all the potential posts that show up everyday, not part of the queue, but begging to be written.  Today's Section A of the Alaska Dispatch News (ADN)  (it was the second time this week we had to call to say it wasn't delivered) was full of such stories.  I'll just try to do a short take on a couple of them.

1.  Jim Gottstein's lawsuit against the Legislative Information Office remodeling contract.  It's so easy for legislators to get away with stuff.  Lisa Demer wrote along detailed story on all the irregularities in the contract two years ago in the ADN.   But this needed someone with legal standing and money and perseverance to step up and sue.  Today's article reveals some private emails that show Rep. Hawker worked with the politically generous developer to get around legislative attorneys' opinions that a no-bid contract was illegal.  Legislators often work with constituents to find ways to get around obstacles to get things done.  But when it's for a no bid contract for a state building that's going to raise the legislature's  rent enormously, it's suspicious.  And Hawker's an accountant, so he can't plead ignorant (ignorance is not a get out jail free card for anyone, but he had special expertise and clearly should have known better.)

2.  Corporations slipping arbitration language into contracts.  This is a New York Times article that was on the front page of the ADN.  It's got several themes I've got an interest in:

• The power of large corporations to force rules on their customers, rules that always favor the corporation.  In particular it is looking at rules that require arbitration to resolve disputes.   The offending language is:

". . .the company 'may elect to resolve any claim by individual arbitration.'

Those nine words are at the center of a far-reaching power play orchestrated by American corporations, an investigation by The New York Times has found.

By inserting individual arbitration clauses into a soaring number of consumer and employment contracts, companies like American Express devised a way to circumvent the courts and bar people from joining together in class-action lawsuits, realistically the only tool citizens have to fight illegal or deceitful business practices.

Over the last few years, it has become increasingly difficult to apply for a credit card, use a cellphone, get cable or Internet service, or shop online without agreeing to private arbitration. The same applies to getting a job, renting a car or placing a relative in a nursing home."

[Added later:  I should also add that attorneys have lots of incentives to fight for their ability to file class action lawsuits.  And that my sense is many of those suits only bring in money for attorneys because either the individuals don't understand all the paperwork needed to make a claim, or they do understand and decide that for the small amount they might possibly get, it's not worth all the work.]

• The impossibility of consumers actually reading all the contracts they have to agree to these days.  For a particularly egregious example, see my post on the iTunes update agreement back in 2013.
• Among many disturbing aspects of this issue, is how this change was carried out and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts' role in this.

" . . .the move to block class actions was engineered by a Wall Street-led coalition of credit card companies and retailers, according to interviews with coalition members and court records. Strategizing from law offices on Park Avenue and in Washington, members of the group came up with a plan to insulate themselves from the costly lawsuits. Their work culminated in two Supreme Court rulings, in 2011 and 2013, that enshrined the use of class-action bans in contracts. The decisions drew little attention outside legal circles, even though they upended decades of jurisprudence put in place to protect consumers and employees.

One of the players behind the scenes, The Times found, was John G. Roberts Jr., who as a private lawyer representing Discover Bank unsuccessfully petitioned the Supreme Court to hear a case involving class-action bans. By the time the Supreme Court handed down its favorable decisions, he was the chief justice."

 The problem for me isn't that a group of people come together to change the law.  That happens all the time for things like civil rights, environmental protection, and other important causes.  But the Constitutional narrative of James Madison was that competing powers would mean that laws would be just because people would challenge misuses of power.  And that's what seems to be happening in the LIO case mentioned above.  However, given the huge inequality in the distribution of wealth in the United States today, the ability to challenge large corporations becomes harder and harder.  The ability of corporations to draft legislation for the legislators they've funded, to change the laws in their own favor, grows increasingly hard to challenge. 


3.  A Washington Post article reprinted on page A-7 of the ADN explaining that supporters see Trump as the candidate who can restore America's greatness.   Trying to understand the motivations of Trump and other candidates is something I always want to do.  I think it is often more complicated than is normally reported.  Unfortunately, the reporter's tone is a bit flip (not to the snark level).  But he does point out that 'when America was last great' varies from person to person, and how Trump is going to restore this lost quality isn't clear.  But let's look at a couple of the examples of the good old days.

• ". . . the last time America was great was when Ronald Reagan was president, when people played by the rules."   

Let's see, the 1980's included the savings and loan scandal, Iran Contra,  Reagan's Chief of Staff was convicted of lying to Congress and more. Jimmy Swaggart and Jimmy Baker scandals, and in sports Pete Rose was betting on his games and Ben Johnson got his Olympic Gold metal with steroids. 

• ". . . it was in the ’70s, Holly Martin says, when you could depend on Americans to work hard."   

When the US had the largest number of union members who still had some power to negotiate with their employers?  When the pay ratio between the CEO and the lowest paid employees was about 20-1 compared to today's 350 - 1? [Clearly related to inequality of wealth mentioned in the class action suit article.]  And jobs were easy to get because so many men were fighting in a controversial war in Vietnam and women were supposed to stay home and raise the kids?

• " . . .to find true American greatness, Steve Trivett contends, you need to go back to before the Vietnam War, “when you could still own a home and have a good job even if you didn’t have a college education.”

You mean just before the Civil Rights Act when whites didn't have to compete with blacks for jobs?  And redlining meant blacks couldn't get loans to buy houses?  

• “The last time we had good jobs and respect for the military and law enforcement was, oh, probably during Eisenhower.” 

When income tax rates in the US were at their all time highest, the largest percentage of US workers were unionized, and when Southern police and courts looked the other way when blacks were lynched?  That was right after WW II and before Vietnam tore the country apart.  

All this selective memory echoes the theme of the play I just saw Other Desert Cities.  We all remember things differently.  And none of those decades were calm and peaceful. They all had strong conflicts. 

4.  Local hockey player squeezes in grandmother's and great aunt's funerals in Saskatchewan before leading his team to victory back in Anchorage.  Here's a kid whose family obligations came before his team obligations.  It involved three plane changes each way (and a hefty bill, I'm sure).  On the lucky side, instead of the normal Fri-Sat games, it's a Sat-Sun series.  A good story and my condolences and congratulations.

How Can People Pay For A Digiplayer When This Show Is Free Out The Window?

Early morning water colors.

Just across the arm to the mudflats of Matsu.  A little after 6 am.

Knik Arm.  We took off about 6:05am, this was maybe ten minutes later.  The official sunrise in Anchorage for today was 5:40am, but with the mountains blocking the sun, it takes a little longer in the valleys.

It was a little misty over the mountains as we flew over.

And then there were clearer areas like over this glacier.

There was thick cloud cover over Prince William Sound.  It was so tight and so low, it almost looked like carpet.  I wondered whether there was any space between the cloud bottoms and the land.

And there were similar conditions in Washington state (this was approximately where the Olympic National Park might be) as we headed for the Portland airport.

Early Morning Departure

5am at the Anchorage Airport. 



 





Rachel Dowdy's jaunty geese. 

And the gift shop in the Anchorage Airport has T-shirts poking fun at gun rights folks. 



Heading south.  Mom's taken a turn for the worse. 

LA Clouds From Above, In The Middle, And Below

Our flight to LA was delayed about 90 minutes - they said something about a crew member on his way.  Then later that his replacement would be there soon.  Arriving at 5:50 am is not great any way, so it didn't matter too much.  Last month we saw the first light of dawn as we got the bus station, just going on 7 am.  But this time, we were still in the plane.  But I did see the first glow of dawn through a window across the aisle.







Then we made the big arc to the left as we headed toward downtown LA before looping back around to land back near the coast.  Only today everything was hidden by thick low clouds.

Then finally we got some glimpses through the fuzzy suspended moisture.

That's the Harbor Freeway (sorry, everyone uses numbers these days, but to me it's still the Harbor Freeway) looking south, with the coliseum and exposition park on the bottom right.  The University of Southern California (USC) campus would be under us.


Below, we are on the ground, sun to the east, overpowering the cloud cover.  There were some drops on the bus windshield, and the streets had a wet sheen, but walking the last mile was a good break from all that airplane time.  And I was glad my foot was up to it.  The heel has been on an off lately.

When we got to my mom's, the tv news was covering the impending rain at tonight's Oscar celebration as if it were something important.  They should spend so much time explaining important issues.

Oh, yeah.  It was mid 30s and raining when we left Anchorage last night.  My fanaticism about keeping our driveway clear of snow and ice paid off.  Our neighbor's similar south sloping driveway was a dangerously slick patch of ice.

Life Versus Blog

I try to balance life and the blog by blogging about things I'm doing.  And much that I'm doing right now is blog related.  I've got a post on the Anchorage International Film Festival's documentaries in competition (one's that the jury said were the best and are eligible for a prize), but these lists take a long time.

I also did a Skype interview with Attila Szasz whose feature "Ambassador to Bern" is also in competition.  So now I have to edit the video so I can post the interview.  He is in Budapest.  To make this more complicated, I finally got a new computer.  Besides being really slow, I figure that my 7 year old MacBook is going to do worse things, than being slow before long.  And while the changeover is going more smoothly than I expected, it still takes getting used to.  Especially jumping three or four versions of iMovie.

I'm also working with the new Ethics Center in the UAA philosophy department, so I'm working on a paper I hope I can send in for publication before long.  I could share some of that here, but not yet.  An the dark sky above was shot from the office I'm using while another faculty member is away.  So, I'm not hiding or idling, I'm just trying to catch up.  There's also some travel coming up again.  And I'm being careful with my foot now that the boot is off.

I did spend an hour with an Apple "Genius" this afternoon and he helped with a lot of little things that I've been discovering on this computer.  As I say, the transition is going reasonably well.

Here's a shot of yesterday's sunrise.

Winter Creeps In

When we got back to Anchorage Friday night, it was still warm enough to be comfortable in a fleece jacket over a shirt.  It was about 35˚F. I know for the people we left behind in LA, that sounded frigid.  But without much humidity and no wind, it's no big deal.

But it's dropped down a bit since and night time temps are down into the teens.  Still not too bad without wind and a good jacket, hat, and gloves.  But it does mean ice on the windshield.  There was an opaque crust Tuesday, but yesterday it was just this light pattern of crystals. 

One of the benefits of the rapid loss of daylight that comes this time of year, is that it's much easier to see the sunrise.  We do still have 8 hours and 40 minutes between sunrise and sunset, which means we still have three hours to lose in the next 50 days or so. 

Frosty Sunrise

We have a great view every morning where we're staying, but this  morning (Monday) it was particularly nice.  Those are bufflehead in the water. 

 
I thought it was supposed to get warmer in March, but we had frost for the second morning in a row.

Break of Day in Rampart

There's an interesting piece in the museum that I've been keeping an eye on. Thursday after the board meeting, I went back to the museum to get photos of it.

 

You can see some of Kathleen's masks here.

Rampart, Alaska

Watching Eagle Harrassed by Ravens and Magpies While Running

I've been rationalizing that shoveling the driveway has been my exercise since October 30 and we've had measurable snow about every three days since then (at least that's how I remember it.)  But shoveling isn't running.  Today I cleared the snow that had accumulated on the deck.  Did some indoor tasks and the sun came out which got me itching to run.  It's a little colder than I like (10˚F or -12˚C), but I thought I should go at least on a short run.  I forgot how good it feels to run outside, even in the cold. 

I also got to see ravens and magpies ganging up on a bald eagle.

The raven is on the right above the eagle

The bald eagle, alone

And now a magpie (left) comes over to keep an eye on the eagle (right)

The sun was already covered again by the clouds at 2:30.  Official sunset was at 3:48pm - we gained, according to the newspaper, 1 minute and 27 seconds of sun over yesterday.  That may not seem like much, but at that rate, it's ten minutes in a week, and the amount we gain is increasing daily.  And for those of you wondering about sunrise - it was officially 10:15am. 

I know the photos aren't very good, I was running.  And my pocket canon powershot doesn't do distance well.  But I'm just documenting here what I saw. 

Sunrise Sunset

We left Anchorage at 6:30am.  You can tell it's September already and nearing equinox - it's not that light yet.

After a stop in Seattle, we headed east.  I'm not sure where we were, but it was 4:45pm Anchorage time - 7:45 or 8:45pm where we were. 

You Can Feel the February Sunshine

At least inside, the sun has a definite warmth when it touches you.  When I go downstairs every morning to spray the bamboo, bromeliads, and begonias, it's light earlier.  Sunrise today was 9:10 am  and it sets at 5:18 pm (the moon gets four more hours in the sky) for a total of eight hours eight minutes and 55 seconds.   But don't believe everything you read on the internet.  The Anchorage Daily News says sunrise today was 9:09 am (five minutes after their scheduled moonrise).   And when I went on line to get the ADN link, I found the online version gave yet another time for the sunrise. (Note, the ADN link goes to weather in general and probably changes from day to day.)  At least they all agree on sunset time.



I'm not sure how you calculate exact sunrise for a place with mountains to the east.

In any case, here are some pictures of my flock.