Grateful to have a home

More beautiful roses

I love where I live. We have been here in Bellingham since we moved here in 2008, and the years have flown by, with the speed definitely picking up lately. Is it because I'm older, or is it because of some other unknown factor? It seems I barely make it through the weekend and it's already the middle of the week. Did someone change the rules? Are there still seven days in each week?

I have to remember to pay more attention to each day, each moment of my life, so that I don't get blindsided by events seeming to occur more and more often. My birthday is right around the corner now, and I've barely had enough time to get used to having had the last one. 

But it could be worse: I might end up being one of those people I see every day on the streets: you know the ones without a home, without any place to go when they awake from a restless sleep on the sidewalk. I'll bet time doesn't fly by for them, as they must endure the heat or cold without any ability to escape their misery. And there are more of them all the time. Will I one day be one of them?

Probably not. I have a monthly income from Social Security and annuities from my working days. But if rent continues to increase at the rate it did last year, I could also end up on the street. It's not inconceivable. Perhaps most of those I see every day didn't think it would happen to them. Our social safety net has developed huge holes in it, and as the population has increased, places for the marginalized among us are disappearing at an alarming rate. I'm not only scared for them, but for what it means in the larger sense for the world. 

Although I try to stay positive, there is little I can do in the short term, other than to give some small amount to the food bank or the local homeless shelter. And try not to look away. This problem belongs to everyone. What do you think we can do to help?

:-{

Our changing world

Taken on Ptarmigan Ridge last week

I am still enjoying looking at the astounding pictures I got on the hike last Thursday: clouds, fog, mountains, all in perfect hiking weather. It was so good to be out again, and to have my knee hold up just fine, along with all the other parts of my body that have been giving me trouble lately. And I didn't fall! Not once.

There are so many ways that our social environment is changing right before our eyes. Just this morning I read that the Merriam-Webster Dictionary has added "their" as an acceptable alternative to using "his" or "her." There is a wonderful article by André Wheeler on The Guardian that gives a long description of how it's come about. Here's an  excerpt:

The recognition of “they” as a singular, non-gender-specific pronoun comes as its usage grows in popularity, especially among people who identify as neither male nor female. However, these adoptees frequently face critics who claim the usage is not “grammatically correct.”

I consider myself to be a bit of a stickler for correct language usage. It's been obvious from the many cultural changes in the past few decades that gender-neutral pronouns are becoming more necessary. So, I bow to the new world we are now facing. Oh, and I ran across this absolutely hilarious video of a father having "the talk" with his son, and realizing he should have done his homework a bit better. I apologize for the lead-in ad, but you can skip it after a few seconds.

Yes, the world is changing. I hope I'll be around for a few more years to see how it all turns out politically. But whatever, I am already happy for the time I've had to enjoy watching the evolution. :-)

Breaking news

Snagged from the TV

I was minding my own business and when I got home from my yoga class, just checking the news, and I saw that this is a Big News Day. Michael Cohen has been indicted with eight felony accounts. Apparently this is a really big deal.

Plus the jury has indicted Paul Manafort on eight felony counts (out of 18). Gosh, both on the same day! Anyway, that sort of took precedent over my news, of the unhealthy air we are all, here in the Pacific Northwest, having to breathe.

Sorry to bring politics onto my blog, but heck I cannot tear myself away! Back to the TV.
:-)

Kernels of truth

Corn on the cob

Many of us enjoy corn on the cob during the summer, especially now when it is fresh out of the garden. A couple of days ago my friend John gave me a bonanza of it from his garden, and I shared it with my neighbors and then came home with the rest. 

I am not a huge fan of corn at any time, but this way is probably my favorite way to eat it. As SG and I sat down to dinner to enjoy our lovely feast, we noticed immediately that we don't eat it the same way at all! I like to start from the middle, eat a nice little section around, and then start eating the rest from right to left, on one side only, then the other.

He, on the other hand, eats it like it is a typewriter, starting on the right end and eating the entire row, does a carriage return and goes to the top and eats the next row, right to left.

Well, this morning it was the topic of conversation at the coffee shop. It turns out that all my buddies are typewriter eaters, sometimes left to right, other times right to left. I have never eaten an ear of corn that way. I think the best corn is in the middle of the ear, and so I get that and then eat the rest in an orderly fashion. I don't always finish an entire ear.

I got online and found this interesting article from the LA Times, titled "Kernels of Truth Come Out When You Eat Corn." So I decided to find out what my readers do. Nowhere have I found anybody who eats it like I do. What about you?

:-)

It could have been me

The square in the Sultanahmet district of Istanbul

I took this picture when I visited Istanbul last February. Yesterday a suicide bomber detonated his explosive in this very square. Here is a BBC article that shows the place, and I went back through my photos and found this one, which is, if not in the exact spot, at least very close to it. The article shows where it was, and I recognized it immediately.

At least ten German tourists were killed and another 15 injured, according to that article. Yes, it could have been me, or any of the people in my group, who could have been killed. The world is becoming more and more hostile and it seems that nobody is safe any more. I was worried about being so close to Syria when I went to Turkey, but there were no signs at all that I wasn't perfectly safe. No place in the world is "perfectly safe" any more, is it?

And to add to my existential angst, the world having lost David Bowie this week at the relatively young age of 69, is tragic. I understand he knew his days were numbered and unveiled his final release, Lazarus, just a few days earlier. A carefully planned farewell. Blue skies, David.
:-{

Clear, cold BRRR! factor

Frosty fallen leaf

I woke this morning realizing that my feet were cold under the covers. We sleep year round with the window open in our bedroom, which is closed to the rest of the apartment. I saw that it was 47 degrees F (8 C) inside, that getting up and starting my day meant I'd be a little on the cold side, so I turned on the space heater once I got out of bed. Time for the down comforter, I suspect.

Outside it was only 27 F (-2 C), and I saw that my pretty front porch flowers succumbed during the night. Our first hard frost. It was going to be a challenge to dress correctly for the walk with the ladies this morning, but I'm proud to say I chose layers and was successful in keeping warm during our 6.5-mile walk. In fact, by the time I reached our high point, I was able to take off one layer. I consider it a challenge not to dress too warmly when exercising, but warm enough to keep myself from being cold. My hands took the longest to warm up in my gloves. Mittens would have been a better idea.

We've got even colder weather on the way, with a chance for us to experience a little of the "S" word next week. Until then, though, we'll just have clear, cold,  brisk days, which nobody minds. Any time the sun shines, there are plenty of smiles to go around.

And to add to the smiles (at least I hope), I found this on Facebook this morning. I knew immediately what Pooh and Piglet were speaking to each other:

Pooh and Piglet speaking Tamarian

How much of a Trekkie are you? I remembered the episode where the Tamarians speak in metaphor and allegory, but I hadn't remembered exactly what they were saying here, so I looked it up. Of course! I then recalled vividly the Star Trek episode. Just in case you wonder and don't care to learn any Tamarian, here's the translation: "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra" (Friendship as a result of a fight against a common enemy). "Shaka, when the walls fell" (Failure).

I know, it's obscure. But it was so original I felt I had to share it. BTW, the potluck gathering last Thursday was a success, although I was so tired that I snuck out early. Who's surprised?
:-)

There are no words

Taken from a friend's Facebook profile

:-(

Our electronic world

Gene with his Android tablet at the coffee shop

These days, when I walk into the coffee shop in the morning, I usually find my friend Gene sitting there with his tablet. He used to complain about me always being plugged into my iPad, but now it seems he's gotten the bug himself. He stopped carrying internet in his home, so he waits until he gets to the coffee shop and its WiFi before he reads his email and checks Facebook. Yes, even my Luddite friend Gene has a Facebook page now! Gone are the days when he would scoff at me for my addiction; he's right there with me. And now I have a Kindle Fire which seems to be taking the place of my beloved iPad. The apps for Android tablets (the Kindle Fire is in this category) are different from Apple apps, and I think I might be stuck with the two of them when I'm out and about until I find apps for all my favorite things.

I skipped my exercise class yesterday so that Smart Guy and I could be at the local Social Security Office when it opened. On Friday, we received our notification of benefits for 2014, and we both had some expenses that were unexplained and rather worrisome. They were the same on both of ours, an extra $80 out of each of our benefit amounts. That sort of adds up! We found that whatever the issue was, it had been cleared up by the time we got there. The clerk pulled up our accounts and saw that everything was as it should be, and NOT what had been printed out on our benefit letters.

She also explained that we could check our accounts ourselves at any time, if we wished to set up individual accounts with the SSA. I will do that, but not any time soon, since I'm still a bit shaken up by what happened and not quite ready to verify that she is correct. I won't receive my money until the middle of January, anyway. But what a shock it was. I lost sleep for a couple of nights over the weekend, wondering what was wrong. I slept just fine last night.

Now about that Kindle: I am enjoying it very much indeed. It's cheaper than the iPad mini I contemplated buying, and just the right size for reading books, reading my email when connected by WiFi, and reading websites, just as I do with my iPad. It's quick to respond and definitely a different beast than my iPad. Right now I'm engrossed in a book my sister Norma Jean told me about (a John Grisham novel, Sycamore Row). I've finished more than half of it and find myself being pulled back again and again. That would be just fine if I was traveling or something, but I had to put it down so I could get this post written. It will wait for me, just like any other book. I pretty much love my new toy.
:-)

This and that

Our community garden is now in full swing, as you can see here. I took this picture on Saturday, not wanting to wade into it since we have had almost two inches of rain these past three days. It was cloudy and rainy Saturday through most of Monday. Our temperature never got out of the sixties, while much of the rest of the country sweltered. Here's the latest forecast from the Climate Prediction Center for the coming 6–10 days:

Looks like the Pacific Northwest and the northeast part of the country will be cooler than normal, and the precipitation map (available from the link) shows those two places will be wetter than normal, too. Great for the garden but not so great for hiking, biking or skydiving. Although we go on our Thursday hikes rain or shine, it sure would be nice to have some shine for a change.

Last Friday, however, was a beautiful day and I rode my bike a fair distance. It surprises me how differently I use the quadricep muscles for bicycling, which is the only reason I can explain how sore they were after what I considered to be a short ride (10–12 miles). I got fenders so I can ride in the rain, but I had little desire to go out and break them in. It's amazing to me how many bikes are on the road: I never noticed before, but now I watch each rider and take note of their techniques for riding in traffic. I downloaded a map of the bike routes around town; there are quite a lot, and since I can ride the bus with my bike to avoid most traffic and get to parks and other places, I'll probably do a fair amount of that.

Yesterday my friend Judy and I went to see Hysteria, a move made last year with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy, among others. It is a comedy set in England in the mid-nineteenth century, when Dr. Mortimer Granville invented the vibrator for the medical treatment of hysteria. That is historical fact, but the movie is a whimsical comedy with some really fun performances. It didn't get great reviews (only 55% on Rotten Tomatoes), but Roger Ebert liked it and wrote

This milestone in human progress has never received the respect it deserves, and yet vibrators have been selling widely and well ever since, even in the early Sears catalogs. ... The performances are spot on, and I especially like the spunky Gyllenhaal.

So did I. This is not a great movie, but I really enjoyed it, laughed a lot, and I thought the guy sitting next to me was going to have a paroxysm of his own, he was laughing so hard at times. If you want to laugh and appreciate some good period costumes and acting, this is the movie for you.

I'm also reading and enjoying a book written and released last fall by Dr. Andrew Weil, Spontaneous Happiness. I'm halfway through it, and I'm enjoying hearing all the ways he suggests finding my own pathway to mental health in a world that I find difficult to appreciate at times. I sometimes get overwhelmed with current world events and lose my perspective, and he suggests many ways to find balance.

Well, that's why this post is titled "This and That." Filled with unrelated stuff, with my own small universe right at the center. I so enjoy reading about what is going on in the lives of my blogging buddies; I hope you will find this a little entertaining.
:-)

Learning to garden

I live in a rented apartment complex with 26 separate units. You are looking at the back of the complex here. Some of the renters approached the owners with a proposition for a community garden, and they agreed to fence in a spot for us to use. Ten plots are available here, since the guy behind the idea, Clint, went around to each apartment to assess the level of interest. That's me standing out there in the yellow shirt with my new shovel.

Once the fence went up, two piles of horse manure were brought in by another tenant, Roger, who works for a landscaping company. He and Clint shoveled it all into two piles. Then for a little more than a week, two goats were brought in to help get rid of the grass. They did a pretty darn good job, as you can see in the two pictures. The difference in the level of grass inside and outside the fence is quite noticeable. A closeup:

Although I was dubious about this fence being able to keep out determined deer, there is a single strand of wire at the top of each post, which supposedly deters critters from jumping over the fence. (I'll believe THAT when I see it.) Next, it was necessary to finish the job of getting rid of the last of the grass, so Roger went over it all with a special weed cutter. He told me that he uses it every day at work, and it runs on propane so has a smaller carbon footprint. His company has won a few awards for being environmentally friendly, which I found out when I visited their website.

Here's Roger getting rid of the last of the grass. It was really hot yesterday, but once he finished with this job, I went out and the two of us got busy shoveling the piles onto the ground. (More people came after I got tired.) I removed some of those plugs that had been pulled out of the ground to help it dry out. We had so much rain in April that our plans were delayed for awhile, but we are on track again. I was plenty tired yesterday but put in at least two hours with my new shovel. I found out from Roger that it is bigger and heavier than I needed, but I really had no idea what kind of shovel to purchase and decided to get the medium priced one.

Here's the garden today, with the manure spread out rather uniformly so that Roger can now rototill the area. The weather today, Sunday, is nowhere near as nice as we had for the previous two days, as you can see. The wind is blowing and the sunshine is gone for awhile. It would have been much nicer to shovel in today's weather, as it was HOT yesterday. I was surprised to learn that inside those piles of horse manure the temperature had risen enough to cause steam to come out. Roger cautioned me to be careful not to touch it as it could grow quite hot. (There was little danger of that.)

Once the manure has been tilled under, we will mark off the areas and get busy planting. I will buy my plants from a greenhouse, with the plants already in progress, and I look forward to the day when I will be having my first delicata squash from this garden, not to mention carrots and kale. We will have a compost heap, and I've learned what is okay to put in there if you want to have an organic one. Who knew I could recycle my tea bags? And lots of other things as well. Roger sent around a four-page list of compostable items. We plan to have a central area of plants that we will all share, such as herbs and other items to be decided upon as time goes by.

If anybody has any tips for this neophyte gardener, please let me know! I am quite excited about this opportunity; it's the first time I've ever had more than indoor plants or my outdoor flowers. To be able to eat things I grow myself is quite a novel idea!
:-)

Our changing world

I spent today, a beautiful sunny Saturday, at Harvey Field in Snohomish jumping with my friends. This is the view of Puget Sound after takeoff in the Cessna Caravan, after we've boarded the plane and strapped in. This is a fairly low altitude, we get much higher, climbing to 13,000 feet before we jump out over the airport and after a minute of playing together, open our parachutes and land in the same place where we took off. I had a wonderful day and made four skydives before heading home.

When I arrived at the Drop Zone early this morning, I saw a young Russian man sitting inside the lounge talking to his mother on his iPad, using Skype or FaceTime, I'm not sure which. But he chatted away in Russian for quite awhile before beginning his day in the sky. Video chatting has given us the ability to talk with our family members in the most unlikely places! I talk with Norma Jean three times a week, for a couple of hours at a time, and I hardly remember what it was like when we were relegated to simple voice conversations.

Everybody has a cellphone these days. I remember when I learned that if I got one, and Smart Guy had one, we could talk to each other in our cars! It was such a revelation. I recall asking a friend whether if we were both in our cars, we could actually dial our numbers and TALK? Now it's just a normal part of my day.

My friend Holly's husband went to REI last week looking for a fanny pack and tried out quite a few. He would put his wallet and cellphone in to see how they fit, and he inadvertently left his cellphone in one. After he got home and realized that he didn't have his cellphone, he went back to REI and searched through all the fanny packs looking for it. No luck. So then he went home and got on his iPad and used the "Find My iPhone" app. (He downloaded it after my unfortunate theft on Christmas Eve.) Well, lo and behold, it showed that it was in a home in Bellingham; they had his iPhone! Address and even the location in the home. He went there and knocked on the door.

"Hi! Did you just buy a fanny pack at REI?" The woman looked at him dubiously and replied, "why yes I did."

"Well, I think my iPhone is in there. I left it by mistake." She went inside and pulled out the pack and looked inside. You know what was there: the missing iPhone. Is that a fantastic outcome or what? I was so pleased to know that I can now see where all my Mac items are at any time (iPad, iMac, and MacBook Air) by just looking at the application from any one of them. That's why I called this post "Our changing world" -- I cannot believe how much my life has changed in just the past decade.

But the one constant is that I am STILL jumping out of airplanes for fun. It's been 22 years now and I'm still enjoying myself, every time.

Even so, it wasn't all that long ago that it would have seemed strange for an almost 70-year-old white-haired granny type to be doing that, either. Our world has definitely changed, and I like it!
:-)

Some blog potpourri

I've gotten into the habit of writing a post on this blog three times a week: one on the weekend (Saturday or Sunday), another on Monday or Tuesday, and of course the weekly hike with the Trailblazers on Thursdays. When Tuesday rolls around and I'm sitting with a book, the subject of a post begins to intrude into my consciousness and I realize that it won't let me go until I sit down at my computer and try to compose something that interests me, at least.

Yesterday morning was glorious, the morning sun shining brilliantly through the windows, and I decided to leave for the bus early and take a few flower pictures. Nothing quite as nice as that light. I was a little stiff and sore from having made three excellent skydives on Sunday. The freefall portions were good, everything going as planned, my parachute openings soft and on heading, and my landings all good, just a nice tiptoe down onto the ground. I could have made more jumps but I was getting tired and, after driving for an hour and a half to arrive back home, I realized how tired I actually was when I got out of the car.

Is a dandelion in the state above really still a flower? Or is it a weed? I saw a lawn on the way home today that had dozens of blank dandelion stalks sticking up, not pretty at all. But the nice yellow flower is, and I think that the seed state of the dandelion is beautiful, too. Not everyone agrees.

Nobody disputes the beauty of this butter-yellow rhodie, though, with the morning light streaming through it. Although I left the apartment a full ten minutes earlier I usually do, I noticed that if I didn't step on it I would miss the bus. I took several pictures of this beautiful flower before I left.

I mentioned on my other blog that I bought a new MacBook Air, which arrived last Friday, and I cannot be happier with it. I chose to buy the 13-inch version to replace my seven-year-old MacBook. It's so amazingly light and small that I was not sure I would like the keyboard, but it's full sized and really perfect. I'm writing this post on my iMac in the living room, but I can see how I could get so enamored with my new gadget that I could forget my old friend. I downloaded pictures from my camera through the Air's SD slot and it was lightning fast. I don't have one of those on my iMac but instead use a USB connection to load my pictures. Gotta stop soon or I'll wax eloquent about the Air for way too long. Check it out.

Finally, when I read my email this morning, I found a wonderful forwarded email from Norma Jean. I don't know who sent it to her, but the person said this about it:

How much fun is this!  What a crazy, delightful ever-changing world!  Who could have thought that in 2012 young people in Moscow would put on a "flash mob" happening, dancing to a 1983 year old "American song" written by a Russian-born American Jew (Irving Berlin) whose last name is the capital of Germany... Check out that red Chrysler 300 limo!

 I don't put a lot of links to videos on my blog, but this one is so wonderful I have teared up from joy each time I've watched it. I hope you enjoy it, too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgoapkOo4vg

It gives me hope that the world will indeed change for the better, once the young people take over.
:-)

Flowers for Leontien

{{Hugs}}

I am offering this perfect rose from last summer's Farmers' Market to Leontien, a woman I had never heard about until last week, when Theresa from the Run*Around*Ranch invited me to be in on yesterday's surprise for her.

Although I didn't participate, I checked into what was posted yesterday and the surprise bunch of blog posts with flowers for Leontien and am sitting here simply overwhelmed with what I've learned about the power of the blogosphere. Here's a bit of background.

Leontien is battling cancer and has determined that she will fight it with all her might, inspiring three bloggers with the idea of providing a list of blog posts that would make her realize that she is not alone in her struggle. Not having known anything about her until I looked at her blog (Four Leaf Clover Tales), I felt a bit reluctant to participate. Until today. The beautiful and overwhelming flowers and posts that have been created here cannot help but inspire anybody. Please take a look at Nancy's blog called A Rural Journal where you too can join the caravan (she's hosting the gift page) and give Leontien your flower, your hopes, a virtual hug, whatever. As soon as I've finished this, that's where this one is going.

This was all the brainchild of Buttons, who enlisted the help of Theresa and Nancy. I received an invitation to be part of the surprise from Theresa and, as I said, I declined. That said, the power of the blogosphere, of love and hope has given me the desire to spread this to Leontien from any of my own followers who might not have heard about it. At this moment (it changes continually), there are 186 flowers and posts on the site. The inspiration I've gained from a random sampling just fills my heart with joy. I'll spend a bit more time crying healing tears, not only for Leontien, but for all of us who have joined together to spread some love.
:-)

Warning: Diva alert

Yesterday, my sister Norma Jean sent me this picture of Lexie, showing that this young lady is going to be dangerous in a couple of decades. Or sooner. Capturing hearts right and left, she's simply adorable! As many of you know, Lexie is my grand-niece, Norma Jean's only grandchild, and truly one of the New Generation. She was conceived using donor sperm and is being raised by a single parent, my niece Allison. I wrote all about it here. I was planning on editing the picture to remove the warning label, but after giving it some thought, I decided to use it as part of the title of this post.

Because of the wonders of technology, I get to see Lexie and her mom on video chat fairly often. She's a toddler now, smart as a whip, and growing by leaps and bounds. Since I talk with Norma Jean two or three times a week on iChat, we swap stories of our lives as well as pictures. She couldn't wait to show me this one. It's definitely a keeper, don't you think?

Today I met a new friend at the coffee shop. I was meditating on this picture while sipping my coffee, and a young dark-haired woman sat down in the adjoining chair. She's obviously in her early twenties, if not younger, and I was thinking about the passage of time, as I often do. Lexie is growing up so fast, but as she ages, so do I. The woman caught me staring at her, and she held my gaze, looking right back at me. I decided to start a conversation. "I was just wondering: when you look at me, do you see an old woman?" She studied me for a moment and shook her head. This began a conversation about how older people become invisible, and she introduced herself to me as Alana (or Ilana, I'm not sure of the spelling). She's indeed 21 and finished her education last fall, majoring in theater, which I find really interesting. I almost asked if I could take her picture for the blog, but instead I gave her my card and told her that if she's interested she could read what I write and even leave a comment if she wants.

Alana (I like that spelling) is working at the YMCA right now and is hoping to be accepted into the Peace Corps. I remember when that was something I considered doing, long ago, and she reminded me that I still can if I choose to. This began a conversation about travel; I am reluctant to travel any more, but she's looking forward to discovering the world and different cultures. She's at the beginning of her adventures, and I am content to be settling into my easy chair (after a good workout, of course).

It was time for me to catch the bus, so we said goodbye. I hope to see her again. What was most amazing to me is that during the conversation, her assurance and direct gaze made me feel I was in the presence of an old soul. Her image keeps creeping back into my mind. When I was her age, I was nowhere near as confident and self-assured as she is. The women's movement hadn't even begun in the early sixties when I was her age. It gives me confidence that we are indeed making some forward progress. Lexie, what will the world be like when YOU turn twenty-one?
:-)

March haircut

In my last post I mentioned that I could tell from the picture Ward took of me on Thursday that I really needed a haircut. So yesterday I got myself down to the local salon and got 'er done. She cut it pretty short in the back, which I appreciate, because in two months it begins to look a lot like, well, the "before" picture. Although someone else might not think it looks too long, it's obvious to me. Smart Guy took this picture for me so I could illustrate how I think my hair should always stay. But you know, it never does. No matter what I want it to do, it continues to grow! Fortunately for me, I have finally found a hairdresser who is (a) not expensive, and (b) gives me what I ask for. She left the bangs a little long, but I asked for them. My new eyeglasses are also a plus. Since they have transition lenses, you can tell we didn't have much sunlight in that first outdoor picture to darken them. I love not having to think about sunglasses; they are just there, or not.

As long as I'm on the subject of hair, I thought of this picture I took on our Thursday hike of Al's curls. My grandmother used to use something to create Marcel waves in her hair and after looking it up (hence the link), I found it was a style that was all the rage during the 1920s. I think I saw it in the recent movie "The Artist" as well. The natural waves that Al has (he's letting his hair grow a bit) would have made many a young flapper envious!

I am really going to miss Picnik, which I used to create the collage of the first two photos. Although it's going away in mid-April, it's still available for use until then. I know I should be trying to duplicate what I did using Pixelmator, but it's not so easy. I have to learn HOW and now that I've let the program languish on my desktop for a month or so, I need to begin all over again. In Picnik, I just uploaded the two pictures and was even able to use the airbrush on my neck. At first I tried to remove the wrinkles, but it looked very weird, so I opted instead to use a nice little softening technique with the airbrush. These same tools are also available in Pixelmator, but not as an editing tool called "airbrush." So, as long as I have it available to me, I'll continue to use Picnik.

Today I went for a six-mile walk with the Fairhaven walking group. Although it rained all day long yesterday, we had a beautiful DRY walk this morning. I learned that during February, Bellingham received more than four inches of rain. We had only a week or so of dry days; all the rest (20, to be exact) had some rain. Ah, but it's March, finally! Although our winter has been on the mild side, I am looking forward to the beautiful sunny dry weekends ahead. I will also hopefully get a chance to make my first skydive of 2012 sometime in the near future. Have a great weekend, and I'll be "seeing" you soon!
:-)

Galbraith Mountain 2012

On some of our Senior Trailblazers outing, we get more than a workout: we get an education. Today eleven of us set out to visit one of our old hangouts, Galbraith Mountain, which I first visited in 2009 and wrote about here. If you were to study the map above, you would see that this mountain is criss-crossed with trails of every sort. It's been a mecca for mountain bikers for years, and many outstanding trails are legendary. But alas, all this is in jeopardy. The mountain was owned by Trillium Corporation until the economic meltdown, and then it was sold to Polygon, a corporation that is now logging it in earnest. We intended to start our hike on a well-known trail with the name of Whoopsie Woodle. Here's what we found:

The detritus that is left after a logging operation has come through the area: we had some flags to help us find the now-nonexistent trail, but once we reached a difficult spot, we consulted our maps and decided to retreat. The WHIMPS (Whatcom Mountain Biking Coalition) is intending to come through here on the 12th and clear this trail so that they and their mountain biking friends will be able to once again visit this trail on bikes. Some of the trails are clear and at present undamaged. But from what I have been able to discover about the future of this wonderful 3,000+ mountain is not positive at all. A coalition has been formed, called Preserve Galbraith, that is active in trying to fix what is happening to this mountain.

The dedicated groups of mountain bikers have continued to build exciting ramps and bridges such as the one above for the use of mountain bikes, hikers, and horses. But I fear it is all coming to an end soon unless somebody comes up with enough money to make the logging operations less lucrative and the access to the recreational aspects of the mountain more attractive. There are wonderful views to be had, which we saw when we finally stopped for lunch.

From the summit of Galbraith, you have a view of Mt. Baker and the Sisters (on the right). This picture isn't wonderful because the light was very flat, with the partly overcast sky making it impossible for me to get the exact right exposure. But you can see the beauty of the vistas. Galbraith Mountain is covered with lots of trails, but we kept hearing the logging trucks and finally ran into them on our way back to the cars. The future of the area does not look promising. This may be the last time in quite awhile I will have the opportunity to visit Galbraith Mountain.

By the time we reached this spot, near the end of our day's hike, we had covered more than eight miles and ascended and descended around 2,000 feet of elevation. I was tired, glad to finally return to our cars, but disheartened to some degree by the destruction of this beautiful area, and the prospects for the future. We are very lucky to have so many wonderful recreational opportunities here in Bellingham, and I am glad I am not a mountain biker seeing my favorite area going under the knife; we hikers have many other options. Not so the mountain bikers. A beautiful day, marred by politics and "progress."
:-{

Things are looking up

These tulips from last spring just made me smile, as I looked for a nice picture to dress up my blog post. Hope they do the same for you. Things are indeed looking up, since today the window on my car got fixed, I have a new bank account, and the insurance claim has been completed with my insurer. Although the replacement of the window didn't meet the deductible, it feels so NICE to have my car usable (and invisible) again. I also got my driver's license renewed and drove around today in my repaired car, the first day since "it" happened last Saturday. So yes indeed, I am feeling so much better today. My insurer even paid for the cost of the stolen chocolate bar.

Last night I also slept the best I have in days. Some of my blogging friends have real difficulty sleeping, so today I am feeling much more understanding, after two nights of anxious tossing and turning. Last night, however, I turned a corner, and today my life feels like it's getting back on track. I can actually start thinking about other things. I've learned some valuable lessons. Here are a few.

This kind of theft is increasing exponentially as people get more desperate. The thieves ALWAYS fill their car with gas as their first move. A red flag is when they fill two or three cars all at once. Women are often targeted, because they carry a purse and usually leave it in the car when exercising. They watch for that. The trunk is a better option, but the police told me if I leave valuables there that I place it BEFORE arriving at my destination, so that nobody sees me open the trunk. Covering your valuables with a coat or a pillow is also a red flag to the thieves.

Women in grocery stores are a target because they leave their purses in the basket as they peruse the shelves. This is when they will walk right up and take your purse while your back is turned. The policeman told me of a woman just today who accidentally left her wallet at Home Depot, and by the time she found where it was, more than $2100 had been charged to her account.

There are two kinds of theft: property and identity. Both are felonies, but identity fraud needs to be handled separately, since police cannot take your word for what happened, your bank needs to give you a detailed report of what happened with your cards so you can make a separate fraud report. The only important thing I still have to do is to get ahold of annualcreditreport.com and use their free report to find if anybody is trying to set up new accounts in my name. They offer a free 30-day fraud alert to make sure nobody is trying to steal my identity. That's my task for this week.

What I am hoping is that my misfortune will serve to warn some of my beloved community to protect yourself from this happening to you. The biggest shock I received today when I turned in the police report is to learn that here, in Bellingham, more than 40 to 50 of these thefts happen every single day! With the police departments being cut back, there are fewer and fewer enforcement officers to follow through to catch these criminals. They get away with it, sometimes until they must feel they are entitled to our stuff. What can we do to change this scary trend?

One of the most important things I've learned in the last few days is that yes, it's a violation of my life, but move on and do not let myself become a victim of identity fraud! The number of people who have told me of their own experiences makes me realize that suspicion is a more reasonable response than trust when somebody calls, or emails, or pretends to be offering something that seems too good to be true.

If you can convince me that this is the wrong choice, I'm all ears. You will be talking to a disillusioned Pollyanna...
:-{

Wildlife and Aldo Leopold

Wolf_Kolmården.jpg: Daniel Mott from Stockholm, Sweden

How could I NOT have heard about Aldo Leopold before now? When I won the book from Far Side of Fifty last week (A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold), I entered a new and exciting part of the universe that I didn't know anything about. That first link will tell you everything about Leopold, but here's the short version. He was born in 1887 and lived to the age of 61; he died in 1948. The book for which he is famous was published posthumously by his son in 1949. Leopold died of a heart attack while helping a neighbor fight a wildfire.

In the early 1920s, he was assigned to hunt and kill bears, wolves, and mountain lions in New Mexico. He learned to respect these animals and came to realize their important place in the ecosystem. From that link:

In 1935 he helped found the Wilderness Society, dedicated to expanding and protecting the nation's wilderness areas. He regarded the society as "one of the focal points of a new attitude—an intelligent humility toward man's place in nature."

In the book, he talks about killing a wolf, and how it changed him. This is from pp. 138-139:

We were eating lunch on a high rimrock, at the foot of which a turbulent river elbowed the way. We saw what we thought was a doe fording the torrent, her breast awash in white water. When she climbed the bank toward us and shook out her tail, we realized our error: it was a wolf. A half-dozen others, evidently grown pups, sprang from the willows and all joined in a welcoming melee of wagging tails and playful maulings. What was literally a pile of wolves writhed and tumbled in the center of an open flat at the foot of our rimrock. 

In those days we had never heard of passing up a chance to kill a wolf. In a second we were pumping lead into the pack, but with more excitement than accuracy: how to aim a steep downhill shot is always confusing. When our rifles were empty, the old wolf was down, and a pup was dragging a leg into impassable slide rocks. 

We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes — something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters' paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.

It took awhile, but Leopold began to realize that the integrity of the ecosystem in which we live requires wildlife.  There is now an Aldo Leopold Foundation, and his children and grandchildren have become naturalists and educators. He was truly a great man. Another quote from the Wikipedia link is from Bruce Babbitt, former Secretary of the Interior:

In January of 1995 I helped carry the first grey wolf into Yellowstone, where they had been eradicated by federal predator control policy only six decades earlier. Looking through the crate into her eyes, I reflected on how Aldo Leopold once took part in that policy, then eloquently challenged it. By illuminating for us how wolves play a critical role in the whole of creation, he expressed the ethic and the laws which would reintroduce them nearly a half-century after his death.

I have never seen a Grey Wolf but I have certainly heard them in the wild, and I'll bet you have, too. Thank you, Connie, for introducing me to Leopold's book. I am enjoying it immensely. She also sent me two lovely cards and said that she couldn't resist sending along a little bit of Minnesota too: both are pictures that she took, mounted on cards with included envelopes I can use to send to special people.

Raspberries and Yellow Lady Slipper

And then there's the book, a treasure indeed, that I will slip into and enjoy every second. The book is, as it says on the cover, "the classic statement of the joy and beauty found in a style of life that protects the environment." For someone who has seen only two bears (magnificent as they were) and mountain goats twice, I can attest to the feeling of majesty they impart to the wilderness. Here's a picture of the entire package I received:

I didn't go for a hike today because of the possibility of getting in to see the doctor about my allergies, which have been driving me crazy. Instead, I'm sitting here in the middle of the afternoon writing this post, and enjoying "A Sand County Almanac." I didn't realize how lucky I was, and I'm so happy to be able to share it with my blogging friends.
:-)

Browsers and blogging

Someone on my Google+ friends put up a picture of this guy who decided to be an advertisement for Chrome. The first picture is the favicon for the Chrome browser. I use it all the time for posting, commenting, and reading stuff on line. I find that it's much less buggy than some of the other browsers, and things load a whole lot faster, too. I wish there was a way to find out what makes my posts hang, and I suspect that if I spent the time to learn more about browsers, I could.

I also use Safari occasionally, and Firefox. When I got my iPad, which comes with Safari, I downloaded something called "Atomic" hoping that it would give me better results for the platform, but no such luck. I've found that posting anything, if using my iPad, must be done in HTML mode because it doesn't support anything else. Atomic is the same. And any little window that is supposed to scroll doesn't work, which must be a function of iPad not liking Flash. Again, I could probably find all this out, but it's a really big black hole that I'm not interested in getting caught up in.

Ever since that three-day crash of Blogspot, I notice that several of my regular commenters must use the "Anonymous" button in order to comment. Since Blogspot has a really good spam filter, it usually only catches real spam, but if you do need to use Anonymous, remember to sign your name; it must look for that, since spammers always put in a live link and don't sign their comments. Frankly, when I think of all the social networks coming on line, like Google+, I wonder where we are headed in this Brave New World.

I am on Facebook and now use Google+, but I haven't ventured into Twitter or other networking sites. My brother thinks Google+ is pretty neat, and every day another person invites me to become a "friend" on there. My Facebook friend list is now over 300, but it includes skydiving friends and acquaintances, people I once worked with, family, and now people I meet in Bellingham. Oh yes, I also have quite a few friends on Facebook from the blogosphere. I really like being able to see pictures of people I no longer see in person; it reminds me that we are all changing (and aging), not just me.
:-)

Why I like to ride the bus

I took this picture during the summer of the now-defunct No. 10 route that went right by my apartment complex. Now I walk two blocks to catch the No. 4 to town. Bellingham has a wonderful bus system, but the city's budget woes caused it to be reduced by 14% last October, and Sunday bus service was eliminated completely. Our city passed a transportation tax this month that should allow some restoration of services next year (at least some routes on Sunday).

I have a car that gets used a few times a week, when grocery shopping or driving 75 miles to Snohomish to jump out of perfectly good airplanes in the summer, but mostly I like it to park it in the driveway while I ride the bus. As I've mentioned before, the WTA (Whatcom Transportation Authority) has routes from the Canadian border all the way down to Mt. Vernon, about 15 miles south of Bellingham, and a monthly pass allows unlimited rides for $25. As a Senior over 65, my pass costs me $13 monthly, or $35 for a quarterly pass. It's a deal I can't pass up. But there's another reason I like to ride the bus: the company.

When I climb into my car and drive to the gym, I am encapsulated in my own little world, and I'm responsible for parking my little capsule somewhere once I get to town. From 9:00am to 5:00pm, I need to feed a meter at 75 cents an hour, and some meters require me to feed it every single hour. (There are a few two- and three-hour meters but they are usually taken quickly.) Riding the bus also allows me to observe my fellow passengers.

The No. 4 picks me up on the way to Bellingham Technical College, so when I step on the bus, there are  already a dozen students of all ages scattered among the rest of us heading into town. Some have their noses in text- or workbooks, obviously getting ready for a test. Some young people are alone in their own iPod world with telltale earbuds hanging from under their caps. Sometimes I can hear the tinny sounds and am wondering what it must sound like inside their heads. Certainly these kids are going deaf quickly.

Yesterday was blustery with a fine misty rain hitting the bus' windshield. I watched a man with his daughter get on the bus with her little pink bicycle sporting training wheels. Our buses have a rack in front for bikes, and the little girl wanted to know why hers wasn't put there. Daddy explained that it's too small to fit. "Why?" she asked. I heard him give an explanation to her, and I remembered the age that has discovered that magic question, which she used at least half a dozen more times during the short ride to town. Dad was very patient with her.

An old lady (I mean older than me), white haired and bent, got on the bus and greeted the driver by name. She sat near him and as they obviously see each other often, they chatted amiably before she settled into her seat. The route goes by the Lighthouse Mission, and I see the same young man get on the bus most days with what looks to be everything he owns in a huge backpack. He doesn't ride very far, but I can see he doesn't want to lug that load when the bus can make it easier for him.

Everyone who rides regularly has a pass, but occasionally someone will insert a dollar bill into the slot and receive a transfer to another bus. After the first of next year, transfers will be eliminated, and everyone who rides anywhere will need to pay a dollar for each ride. Another cost cutting measure. The pass is a magnetic card that passes through a slot and beeps when successful. Sometimes a person will forget that it's a new month and the card makes another sound. If it's the first of the month and a regular rider, the driver will often allow the rider on anyway, with a promise that they will buy a new pass in town.

I've been watching for Sonya, who would ride the No. 10 bus with me several times a week, but with the new route and schedule, I haven't seen her yet. There are a few people who have become acquaintances, and we chat and sit together when we happen to ride at the same time. This is, to me, far superior to the other option of taking my car into town and parking it. I am a member of my community, and I feel my connections are stronger by taking the bus.
:-)