Vegetable garden revamp

I thought it was time to redesign the garden a bit. I planted some stuff in the front one. The rate I am getting things done, it could be June before I have everything planted. This is what it looked like last year:

This was the plan last year.

50K River Run Done

Sarah leading the way. We stayed together the whole 31 miles.

I saw parts of Riverside State Park that I never knew existed. At one point we were all over Deep Creek, up on the rocks, down in the creek bed. Very cool. Lots of big hills in the first half.

Eventually, we realized we could walk up the hills about as fast as running up them, so we did. Took in lots of water, Heed and potatoes at every water stop. Tripped and fell down twice without injury, just a lot of rolling around, which actually felt pretty good at miles 28 and 30. My back was kind of stiff, and the impacts and subsequent thrashing about seemed to help.

This is probably the best run race I have ever participated in. Very well marked except for one spot near the end where some prankster had obviously removed the arrow. Nothing funnier after running 5 plus hours.

We took a breather midway and I changed my socks. Ike came up and told us he had placed First overall in the 10k. That was amazing and we talked a lot about that over the next 15.5 miles.

Beautiful day and a very great time with beautiful Sarah!

Campaign Bike Rides Again....

It had good luck in the last presidential election, and then again defeating Tim Eyman's most recent kookoo plot.

The EMS levy has been approved, every six years, since 1980. It funds a big chunk of the fire department. The cost continues to be 50 cents per $1000 of home value or $50 per year per $100,000 of home value. If it's not approved, in January we will probably lose about a third of our firefighters and three to five of our 14 fire stations would have to be shut down. Also, insurance premiums would increase.

The other option if it doesn't pass, I suppose, would be to severely cut into other city budgets to keep Spokane's fire department going. That would not be good either. Studies show that people's choice to live in a city is based on public safety, quality of life and educational opportunities.

Compared to other departments in the state, Spokane's citizens get a lot of bang for their buck. We've got the busiest engine in the state and the department's call volume is huge. Here's a link that shows how Spokane's citizens' tax dollars are used compared to other cities.

Back in the 80s, there were over 80 firefighters on duty every shift. When I was hired, over ten years ago, we were pushing 70 on duty. Now we are in the 50s. And over this time, our call volume has doubled. The EMS Levy enables us to continue operating in this mode.

If you are interested, here is a link to the YES EMS website.

Thanks for listening to my shameless plug.

Back from San Diego.

Man, San Diego was great - except everyone, where we stayed, rode their bikes on the sidewalk! I was a visitor, so I didn't scream at them. In fact, I don't think I have ever been more mellow.

80 degrees our first day there.

Our hotel was on a thin peninsula with a large, sheltered bay on one side and the ocean on the other. Mission Beach was nice.

If California is broke, I think we could use a little of that "brokeness" here in our state. Things were hoppin'. The only political bumper sticker that I noticed was this one and it related brokeness as well:HINT: If you want to "Tell Barack I'm Baroke" you may want to get a different car that reflects your barokedness. I see that you drove down to Seaworld ($60 a pop, plus tax, plus parking) with your family from Colorado for Spring Break in a new Yukon. I am sorry. Is there anything I can do to help you (beside talking to Barack)?

I am beginning to thing that "being broke" is not what I thought it was.

Addendum 4/3/10 - Aidan found this link which may explain more about the Baroke Obama concept.

EMS Levy Approacheth!

Every six years we get to vote on the EMS Levy. Basically, this funds a big chunk of the Spokane Fire Department - about 90 firefighters or almost a third of us. Spokane has 14 stations. Without this funding, more than likely, 5 or more would be shut down. That's a lot.

Right now, compared to other Washington cities, our fire department responds on more calls with less firefighters for less money. I think the taxpayer (me included) is well-served by our fire department. Maintaining the EMS levy retains the same level of service for the same amount of money.

I hope you vote YES, if you live in the city. Ballots will be going out the beginning of April. We will need 60% to pass. Thanks. If you want to know more, here is a website.

Stocking Manito Pond - A Family Get's Its Kicks!

While running this morning, I noticed people sitting on benches smiling and pointing at Manito Pond. I looked over and saw this family. They were booting fish into the pond. I think they were bullheads (The fish. I don't know who the family was). I might be thinking that because I remember when all the bullheads were poisoned out of the pond some years back. Maybe they were trout from the Big Horn Show.

It was an interesting technique, kicking them into the pond. Babe Winkleman should take note. Pretty sad.

A lot of thought and planning goes into managing our parks. Rogue stocking by citizens is not part of this management. In other words, we spend a lot of money and effort to keep this pond less shitty and scummy. Remember the "Don't Feed the Ducks Policy." You can see they have the bread ready for that one too.

It happened pretty fast. They had been at it a while when I arrived on the scene of admiring onlookers. When I got there they still had 10 fish or so when they made the final kick or two that sent the fish into the pond. Looking at the little kid, he was pretty close to going in too.

Rabbitron Interview

My friend and neighbor Phyllis Silver does an excellent interview with my friend Tracy Martin. Tracy is a rabbit advocate and is the founder of Rabbitron. Listen to it here.

Don't buy your kids rabbits for Easter. If you want a pet rabbit, talk to Tracy and she will help you adopt one. Tracy and her husband Max are the best!

An industrial response to Dr. Bronner

This has been on our shelves at work for quite a few years. Never really noticed it until the other day and it reminded me of Dr. Bronner's castile soap. Yes. It is a slow news day at Spokanarama HQ.

Still, I think back to the copy writing days and think this would have been a lot of fun to have in the portfolio.

Bonus - a nice picture of Dr. Bronner:

Wow. Flowers. Actually a lot of flowers!

I know we are setting ourselves up for the big spring snowstorm, but the flowers are calling!

HIgh Drive on brink of eruption.

No. Not really. A caravan of white trucks were parked on the trail. They reminded me of the truck operating the robot pipe inspector this summer. Maybe it's the same bunch. All I know is I had to run through the steam. I held my breath. The smell of tainted varnish and used Juicy Fruit clung tenaciously to my clothing long after I crossed the plume. I cough as I type.

Almost a hat trick.

Saw this while running yesterday. A pretty good job. He managed to park in a no-parking zone, while at the same time parking on and blocking what passes for a sidewalk, as well. If only he had the foresight and gumption to park about 30 feet to the east, he could have blocked the hydrant, as well. So close.

Well, as Meatloaf once wisely pondered in a musical fashion, "Two out of three ain't bad."

Squished

I am venturing into a realm I haven't been to for almost 20 years. With the 50K River Run approaching, I am slowly getting my mileage up. The past couple of runs, I even took water with me. This is something I have never done before. I stuck a water bottle in a pocket for a 15.5 mile run and then a couple of days ago I carried a bottle inside a fannypack (are they still called that?) for a 17 mile run.

I also carried some "sports gel." The plan was at 9 miles to taste a little of the gel and see how it made me feel. I've used this stuff a couple of times on long bike rides and was pretty amazed.

The bouncing water bottle in the pack kept opening up the pack's zipper and almost escaping. At mile nine, a thorough search proved that the sports gel had been ejected somewhere along the line. Bummer.

But, it did give me something to do on the eight miles home. I kept thinking I had found it. My stomach would feel hopeful, and then, time after time, it turned out to be a cigarette pack wrapper. Thank gawd I am not a smoker. This would have have been a double whammy.

This happened a lot. It was a fun diversion.

When I did find my sustenance, it was squished, and only about two miles from my house.

Luckily it was garbage day, so I was able to throw the pebbly carcass into someone's trashcan.

Yesterday I bought one of those bottle carrier dealios, so we'll see how that goes...

My Brother-in-Law looks like Ulysses S. Grant....

Heritage Funeral Home is where you can find this great picture of a so-so president. Only here on Spokanarama can you find a picture of my great brother-in-law with the picture of the mediocre president.

The first time I went to Heritage Funeral Home it was for their Titanic exhibit. It was a lot of fun. There was even an inflatable Titanic slide where kids skidded down the deck to their simulated icy doom.

Every Memorial Day, Heritage does some kind of odd-ball remembrance and it's great!

This year's offering:

TV and Movie cowboys!!!

Gearing up for our 50th Birthdays!

Sarah and I both celebrate our 50th birthdays this spring. About a year ago, I said something like, "Hey, we should run a 50 mile race for our 50th birthdays," knowing that there were no 50 mile races around here in the spring. Sarah said that was too far, but there was the 50K Spokane River Run in April.

Damn.

So, we've been building up our mileage this winter. Today, I have a 14 mile run planned. I say planned because I usually wind up getting lost in my thoughts, and adding another couple of miles to the run, according to my Garmin Forerunner 305.

This GPS wristwatch is pretty cool because it also tells me what my current pace is. I also have my really old IPod Mini on board. It's dented up and glued together, but still works OK.

I never listen to music when I run, just podcasts. Some favorites are Real Time with Bill Maher, Harry Shearer's Le Show and WTF by Mark Maron. You might remember him from Air America's Morning Sedition.

My absolute favorite podcast is Coast to Coast AM. Some of the stories people call in with are pretty funny, especially when the caller is drunk and he discloses the sad tale of the werewolf/vampire/alien/liberal who stole his fiance. Some of the shows depart from the paranormal and feature famous scientists - experts on astronomy, geology, mathematics, etc. The same callers still call in. This is fun to listen to as callers try to turn a scientific treatise on black holes into a discussion concerning demonic air fresheners, time-traveling telemarketing and machine elves. Priceless.

Here is a good article, my neighbor Brad shared, concerning George Noory the host of Coast to Coast. Everyday people always tell great stories on this show, and Noory continually treats them with respect and kindness. And then there's always UFO Phil.

I hope to get back into the barefoot running after our birthday celebration.

Happy Trails!

First Generation Insulated Windows

It's interesting when you can see how things evolve. These insulated windows are obviously first generation. I think the new ones are even transparent.*

Nonetheless, 2nd Ave Healing Arts is a cool place even in the summer, regardless of their window's R value. So go there, if you need some massaging, rolfing or any other stuff like that there.



* I know.

Back from Florida

Regarding my last post - I am back from astronaut training. Actually, that was the one free day that I had in Florida and I spent it at the Kennedy Space Center. It was $38 to get in. One of the guys really did not want to go there in the first place, so when he found out how much it was going to cost, well it was a great reaction. Then the rest of us really wanted to go. It was the "blood-in-the-water" phenomenon so often observed when you put firefighters together.

We were down there for IAFF ALTS, basically some union training. There were firefighters from all over the USA and Canada. There were a lot of classes, some very good. I saw a lot of this:

Our hotel was across from "Downtown Disney." I got kicked out at 6 am while on a run. The guard told me I couldn't run on "the boardwalk." Here's me right before my ejection:


Downtown Disney is basically a theme park without any rides.

Here are some notes I made my last night there while I wandered around by myself:

A strange place. You have to get bused here unless, like me, your hotel is across the street. Incidentally, there is no crosswalk between the two. It's like if you don't ride the bus or drive your car, your bucking the system. No bike racks.

Orlando, Florida - yet not an orange to be had at DD. Theme restaurants. Theme gift stores, but no theme liquor store. Lots of plastic. A fire would melt the place.

Weathered fiberglass statues of brooms with arms, some carrying buckets, all over in little curbed in areas of green. What is the message here? What was the focus group question that spurred this response? They remind me of the old miniature golf statues in Riverfront Park, making me homesick - geographically and chronologically.

No rides. It's almost like a free taster of Disney World I think. If you like the town, you will love the world.

The place is packed and everyone, including myself, is mesmerized, by the shiny sanitary lights and canned corny blarings. It's like a Mormon burlesque show.

I found myself getting lost but always easily found. It's a preplanned route that makes sure the traveler always stays on the path and never truly wanders astray - a safety maze.

Outside of every restaurant, whether an animatronic dinosaur joint, a tropical jungle cafe, a sternwheel fish place, an upscale Italian eatery, the House of Blues, Planet Hollywood, even McDonald's, all the menus are posted like post mortems. Sometimes they are accompanied by the autopsy photos. Here lies Chicken Strips. Three strips, 14 fries. So lifelike.

Yet, I know there was a time when I would have loved this place. It would have been too expensive for me to eat in any of the restaurants, but everyhing else would have appealed to me. Why? What happened?

Maybe it's because I am alone here now. Half of these people could very well be enjoying themselves in an ironic fashion, chatting up between themselves the goofiness of the whole enterprise, but I don't think so.

It's not real and it's embraced by thousands tonight and that says a lot.

Wow, I just depressed myself. I think I must have been really homesick.

Respect is universal...

Are more people texting/talking on their cell phones than before we made it a secondary offense?

Was out running this morning and witnessed a Suburban slowly weaving its way down the street. As it passed (extremely closely) I noticed the driver was typing away on her cell phone. I can only imagine the gravity and sagacity of the text "conversation":

What R U doing
I M driving
Me 2
LOL
LOL

Look around next time you're on the streets. It seems as if more drivers are texting and talking than aren't. The current wimpy cell phone law has had no effect.


I must admit the texting thing pisses me off anyway. Ignore the people around you. Ignore what is presently going on, so you can carry on an inane "conversation" with another bored person. That's bullshit. It's especially cool when you are at the movie theater and someone in front of you basically shines a flashlight in your eyes by texting on their beacon of a phone.

I guess it's the purposeful disconnection from the surrounding environment and those around them that texters pursue that really sets me off - all the more so when they are hurtling down the road in their steel behemoths. All I have to defend myself from their distractedness and disconnectedness is my running shoes or bicycle pump.

Which brings me to my proposal. I know the state is considering making these driving infractions a primary offense. Spokane should get a jump on it and make it a primary offense in the city right now. A $500 fine for texting while driving. A $200 fine for talking into a cellphone while driving. Cha ching!!

The red light cameras could go to work on this right away.

How about bounty hunting? Pedestrians, passengers and cyclists could take pictures of drivers texting/talking on their phones and turn them in. Split the ticket down the middle. Half goes to the bounty hunter. The other half to the city. People with windows tinted so darkly that you can't see what they are doing would be presumed guilty. I thought these windows were against the law anyway.


Send your pictures to me. I will post them here. If nothing else, it should make for some interesting art.

Taking these pictures isn't as easy as it looks. I was really slow on the draw for this one which would have been cool because it was a big corporate delivery truck:


On the hunt, you see many texters at work behind the wheel, but it's harder to photograph them usually. It's almost like they know what they are doing is wrong and so they are much more furtive in their behavior.

What do you think? Would this be a cool thing to promote or is it kind of an Orwellian affront?

Zombie Night Out and the Miracle of Cycling!

My high school friends and college roommates, Lance, Rich and I went to the original Dawn of the Dead movie in 1978. A few years ago there was a remake. I thought about how it would be a lot of fun to have a reunion of sorts around this zombie redux.

Rich and I have had our share of reunions. Aside from high school and college graduations. We've had USAF OTS and Spokane/Spokane Valley Firefighter Recruit School graduations. Rich and I have led lives that have, at times, mirrored each other. Lance, on the other hand is much more elusive. Here is a picture taken in 2004 or 2005 right before we saw the remake of Dawn of the Dead, which was not as good as the original. I have never been one to go in for zombies that sprint or do more than shuffle. I mean WTF, they're dead already. That's Lance in the middle. Rich is on the left and I'm on the right striking zombieish poses.


Well, here's the picture from the night before last when we saw ZombieLand at the Garland. Yes, in this movie the zombies are a little too fast at times for my liking, but live and yet live and yet live again is my new motto. Lance is still in the middle. Rich and I have switched sides.

Lance lost a ton of weight. Between photos, he had gotten even heavier than the first picture. At our 30th high school reunion in 2008, Lance had dumped much of the weight. How?

He did it by changing one thing in his life. His bicycle became his primary vehicle. No dieting. No workout regimen other than how he gets from Point A to Point B. Although he does enjoy cycling so much he participates in a lot of just-for-fun rides too.

Lance told me that bicycling saved his life. I believe him. He, like I, acknowledge that it is the most fun way to get anywhere. Like all of us, he has had his share of close calls, once getting clocked in the head by an RV's mirror.

Lance is also a pied-piper of cycling. He has gifted many people with bicycles and has organized rides for others.

When we were kids, Lance was the ultimate motorhead. He could tell you the part number for just about any oil filter and could rebuild any motor. His high school ride was a '41 Chevy. Today, he shuns cars as much as possible and acknowledges that the bicycle is probably the greatest invention and cars close to the worst. Maybe I am putting words in Lance's mouth, but I think he would say something like that.

Let your bicycle be your inoculation against the Zombie Disease gripping our nation. Perhaps you know this sickness better by its scientific name - automobile centric lifestyle syndrome.

Palouser?

Just finished reading The Big Burn by Timothy Egan. A great read. All the action takes place within about a hundred miles of Spokane. I can't get enough of books like these, ones that chronicle a historic event with good characterizations. When you read about the political temperament of the early 20th century, you realize that the same battles are being fought today by the same characters. Although, it seems the citizenry was much more engaged at the time and weren't so easily buffaloed. This morning's article detailing the GOP's attempt to "protect" Obama by condemning Harry Reid because of a racist remark he made years ago comes to mind. Pathetic. Republican attempts at this kind of shameless chicanery were met with scorn and ridicule in the aftermath of the fire of 1910 by the press, by the people and at the ballot box.

I have a lot of local exploring to do this summer, thanks to this book. One thing though. The author talks about how we in eastern Washington refer to a wind blowing from the Palouse as a "Palouser." I had never heard of "palouser." Talking to others, no one else has either. Have you ever heard this word before? Pal Louser? Puh Loser? P'Looser?

I read In Pharoah's Army a few weeks ago and the author claimed that during the Vietnam War he watched The Gong Show. Only if he had a time machine, I think. When I read things like the Palouser and the TV reference, it makes my undiagnosed OCD really flare.