PROJECT DU JOUR

Back on the island and todays project was to move the generator outside.  Up until now, the procedure was to hook up the generator inside the dark garage, fire it up, then open up the garage door and muscle the thing outside.  A daunting task that required several steps.

Former home of the generator

Earlier in the week an electrician had run the hookup outside, so my role was to construct a box to house the generator.

Future home of the generator

Starting with one of those snap together sheds, leveled the site and assembled the shed.

The trick to making the box work for the generator were the louvered roofing vents. Installed one in either side of the box.

Next drilled the hole and put a weatherproof box on the shed to run the wire connection to the house, and in a couple of hours done.

Hard to see, but added a couple of battery powered led lights so you can see to start without holding onto a flashlight.

Now when the power goes out all that needs to be done is to flip the utilities off at the panel, go outside and start the generator, then flip the panel to accept the power from he generator.  Most of the key systems for the house will work.

Check that one off the list!

THE DARK AGES

We’re about to enter the dark ages. Fall. I don’t like Fall. Of the four seasons, it’s my least favorite.

Summer’s over, winter is coming, daylight is retreating and darkness is growing. Even the ‘fall colors’ are really dying leaves. The leaves have done their job, about to be jettisoned for worm food. The bright colors are annual flags of surrender.

The earth’s tilt in combination with our yearly journey around the sun rob the Northern hemisphere of sunlight. In Seattle, we get nearly 16 hours of sunlight in June, yet that will shrink to about 8 hours in the next few weeks.

Depressing graph.  The day will shorten by nearly 2 more hours and the rain is going to rachet up.

The day will be halved. When you work 9 to 10 hour days, 8 hours of sunlight just isn’t enough. As beautiful as Seattle is during the rest of the year, the next couple of months will be tough.

A TALE OF TWO COMMUTES

Monday morning I commuted from North Bend into work with the truck.  30 miles and it took 1 hour. Seeing the fall colors was the only pleasurable thing about the trip.  Stop and go, bumper to bumper traffic all the way from Issaquah to Bellevue.

Monday evenings drive from Bellevue to Shilshole was shorter, but it still took 50 minutes. And during rush hour, that's actually one of the faster commutes.

The morning commute also took an hour, hatch to cube.  But there was a difference.  I took the bike.

The walk down the dock was pleasant and instead of being in a car, I made the inaugural ride on the purple monster. I seemed to be going much faster, although I think I need to set up some way of seeing just how fast I’m going. It would be easier to plan if I could see my average time.

Riding through Ballard isn’t that much fun, but in the early morning, it’s not bad. Once you click into the Burke Gilman, it gets fun.

The bike trail parallels the ship canal and on this morning the shells are out with the coxswains chattering with their crews. There were a few eights and some sculls, but it was difficult to see in the predawn gloom. Between the shells and the coach launch’s there were quite a few sets of running lights.

About 30 minutes of pedaling bought me to the UW where I put the bike on a bus.  The bus drops me off less than half a block from work.

Here’s the map of the morning 6.3 mile bike commute to get on the bus.

The bike ride home was different. About 20 miles. If you haven’t ridden that far in a while (and I haven’t), it’s a real beast. It’s an interesting commute: floating bridges, riding into the sunset, and great neighborhoods. At times, really nice views. But it’s 20 miles.

Longer ride

It took me just over 2 hours, which is a dismal time. To be fair, I had stopped a couple of times to make calls so it wasn’t non stop, but I found the first attempt after not riding for several months very difficult.

Getting on the bike Wednesday morning was tough, but a again took the 6.3 mile route in the morning.  That 30 minute ride truly is fun.

Coming home I tried a different route.

Leaving work on the bike, I pedal towards the lake the catch the bus across 520.  There is no bike lane on that bridge.  At the UW, I get off and again pedal the 6.3 back to the boat.

It's about an hour, but 9 miles of riding gets the blood pumping after work.

Here is the bike that would cut down the commute time!

COLUMBUS DAY

1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Christopher Columbus. Great navigator, discovered America, and left one of the larger marks on history. Tomorrow is Columbus day.

Cause for celebration, right?

Before diving into that, I’ve never had any particular feelings for Columbus day, other than it was one of my early childhood memories – the great Columbus day storm in 1962 which leveled a tree in our backyard and pretty much caused havoc throughout the northwest.

Back to Mr. Columbus. As a sailor, his greatest strength was his knowledge of the tradewinds. That knowledge overcame some grievous navigational errors. Mr Columbus overestimated the size of the European land mass and grossly underestimated the size of the planet. He had estimated the Canary Islands were about 2,300 miles away. It was more like 12,000 miles. Oops.

He also didn’t prove the earth was a sphere. It had theoretically been proven long before, but he did test the theory. In any case, he landed in what he thought was India. Wrong. It was the Bahamas. Ooops.

Upon landing, he was greeted by seemingly friendly natives. He promptly took a few prisoners to find out where they had obtained the gold they were wearing. Despite the fact the Vikings had made landfall way before Chris, what Columbus did do is bring back word of his discovery to Europe.  

He also left behind something that helped pave the way for future expeditions. Germs. Small pox. There is growing evidence that the population of the Americas vastly exceeded what we were taught in school. By the time the colonists arrived in the 1600’s, there were only remnants of the native amercans left, but it was those remnants that formed our opinion of what the native Americans were like.

Charles Mann, author of the book 1491, equates that impression like forming an impression about European culture from a small band of starving escapees from a concentration camp.

The nomadic small bands of native Americans bore little resemblance to the potential millions of inhabitants alive when Christopher Columbus landed.

While Columbus had long been a source of pride from Italian Americans, the first formal Columbus day was in 1937. Pushed hard by Italian American immigrants, Roosevelt made it a formal Holiday. Every ethnic group rightfully has their heroes, but it does matter the lens through which you look.


No doubt he made an impact and he did set into motion a great sequence of events. But proof is growing he inadvertently depopulated an entire hemisphere.

His actions arguably resulted in more death than any other human being.

Should we celebrate Columbus day? I’d argue no. Should we observe it? Perhaps. It should give us some pause and make us think. If recent discoveries are correct, generations were wiped out nearly overnight. There was great suffering, but as there was no written word, we don’t have any hard evidence. Yet.

At bare minimum we should question what we learned in school. Bottom line, he did succeed in getting to the new world and getting back. But he wasn’t a particularly good navigator and he wasn’t first. Lucky? Maybe. But potentially millions paid for his success.

SNOW LAKES

What a glorious hike and what a glorious day for a hike.

We left early in order to get back for the Seahawks game.

We had seen a great sunset the night before, so we knew we had to watch the game.

Getting up early, we headed for Snoqualmie pass. It was foggy, but it was supposed to clear. After some early misdirection (they moved the trailhead within the last 20 years!), we headed up.

Riggs practised his big boy bark against a perceived threat.

The fall colors were out (ok, they PALE in comparison to Ohio and Pennsylvania standards) and the mountains in the back ground were great (take THAT Ohio and Pennsylvania!).

Snow Lakes is a great hike. 2.7 miles up, it’s a decent workout with a great view.

I was here back in College and have a vivid memory of a backpacking trip. My college roommate and I hiked up and then down to the lakes with full backpacks. Mine seemed to weigh a ton. When we got to the lakes, my buddy said something like “Whew. Want a beer?” I was incredulous. “You brought beer? Really?”. He said, “No, you did.” He had put a full 6 pack in my backpack before we had left the parking lot. My anger pretty much evaporated after the first sip. Today however was just a quick day hike.

Riggs got his first taste of snow up on the saddle. The trail did get a bit crowded when we headed down, but it was a good day.

We missed the kickoff, but the TV was turned on for the run back. It wasn’t pretty, but the Hawks won.

BACK TO RATTLESNAKE LEDGE

Today was gray and cloudy. No rain, intermittent sun tried, but ultimately failed to come out. We had planned to go to Snow Lakes, but with rain threatening we decided to stay closer to home.

Back to Rattlesnake Ledge. We are staying in North Bend, babysitting my sister’s dog.

Riggs, the dog, is a great hiker, but my sister wanted to ensure I kept him away from the drop offs.

I reassured her that if he did fall off a cliff, I would fling myself off as well, beat him to the ground and cushion his fall.

Her response at that scenario was a little more enthusiastic than I felt comfortable with.

 In any case we again did the four mile round trip up and down Rattlesnake. It turned into a classic fall ‘fern, moss, mushroom and slug’ tour.

Good exercise and great way to jump start the body after being in the flat lands for 3 months.

SEATTLE FREEZE and CASCADE CALM

During my 3 month stay in Columbus, I was repeatedly struck by how friendly people were. Or, more accurately, how much more friendly people were in Columbus relative to Seattle. Making eye contact, the use of the word ‘thank you’, addressing people as “sir”, or “ma’am”; there was a social ease and graciousness that is more evident in Columbus than Seattle.

I’m just a sample of one, but the dynamic intrigued me. Was it just me? After all, while in Columbus I generally felt ‘up’ and outgoing. I was knocked out of my daily routine, everything around me was new, and felt energized by embracing the new atmosphere around me. I was interested in seeing and experiencing as much as I could in a relative short time. Armed with energy and a sense of urgency I tried to explore as much as I could.

It’s natural that someone with that attitude would experience things differently than a bored, sullen, person well within their routine (not that I’m describing myself, although some may disagree!).

In the first 24 hours of being back, I tried to look for Seattle unfriendliness, but didn’t find it. During breakfast I had a great conversation with Geo and Kim. Very friendly people. The next chance for interaction was on the trail, and again had a nice conversation with a gal with 2 Jack Russell Terriers and exchanged pleasantries with folks hiking.

When we went out to dinner we met a couple with a golden lab and a pug who were charming. But I did hear about what I understand to be the famed “Seattle Freeze”, and read about a general “Cascade Calm” that some think characterize Seattle in particular and the region in general.

The theory behind the “Seattle Freeze” is that folks in Seattle aren’t unfriendly or rude, in fact on the surface they are quite polite. They just don’t invite new friends into their circle. Reading up on the phenomenon, it seems as if it’s generally about young folks and the difficulty with establishing a circle of friends for transplants from other states.

On line, the theme seems to be angst from twenty something techy immigrants from other states. With the explosion of Microsoft, and more recently Amazon.com, quite a few tech types have moved to the northwest, probably in the tens of thousands over the past 20 years, and it makes sense that their collective immigration didn’t go as smoothly as they thought it should.

Given our Nordic ties and independent nature of the first residents of Seattle, I could see how Seattle wasn’t by nature gregarious and overtly welcoming, but on the other hand I’ve always thought as the Northwest as a friendly place. My father used to tell me how, in the late 40’s, his car broke down just outside of Seattle. This was way before freeways and it was late at night. He said 20 cars went by and 19 of them stopped to see if they could help. That made a lasting impression on him.

As I dug into this topic, I found a study that dove into the regional psychological difference. It was interesting and I’m still trying to process exactly what it meant. The authors broke down 5 different psychological traits; Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

Openness – appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, curiosity and variety of experience.

Conscientiousness – a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement; planned rather than spontaneous behavior.

Extraversion – energy, positive emotions, surgency and the tendency to seek stimulation and the company of others.

Agreeableness – a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others.

Neuroticism – a tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression, or vulnerability; sometimes called emotional instability.

So.  How does Washington stack up to Ohio?

Openness

Ohio is middle of the road ranked 24th, but Washington is way up there ranked 5th out of 50 states (which is no surprise given the last election cycle of initiatives).  The coasts in general, west more than east, are open to new ideas.

Conscientiousness

Ohio is one of the lower ranked states at 38 and Washington is middle of the road at 25. New Mexico, North Carolina and Georgia clean up in that category at 1, 2, and 3 respectively. What a minute. Georgia?! New Mexico!? Hmmm. Entire premise is now suspect.

 Extraversion

Here’s where things are really different. Ohio is middle of the road (25th), and Washington is bottom of the barrel at 48 out of 50. Hence the famous northwest passive aggressiveness.

Agreeableness

Ohio and Washington roughly in the same spot, 27 and 22 respectively. The most agreeable states? Minnesota and North Dakota. The least agreeable? District of Columbia (no, I’m not kidding) and Alaska.

Neuroticism

This is the fun one. Washington ranks low (46th) with states like Colorado, South Dakota, and Oregon ranking lower. Ohio is on the other end, ranking 9th. The most neurotic states? West Virginia, Rhode Island, and New York.

So there you have it. In Washington we lack Extroverts, but we’re open to new ideas and we are emotionally stable. The ‘Cascade Calm’.

So perhaps the lack of extroverts and the relative emotional stability doesn’t lend itself to a lot of social interaction for us out west! Perhaps there is something to both the ‘Seattle Freeze’ and the ‘Cascade Calm’.