Puttering

A nice day here today. All the dogs got a bath. The generator got an oil change. The car got cleaned out. A few rocks were piled by the garden. A few loads of laundry got done. The kitchen floor got washed. The kitchen table got scraped down in order to refinish it. In short, one of those glorious days where you can just be outside and putter.

Then I got a call from the hospital Supervisor:

"Allan, you were on the schedule for today".

"Really, I can make it there in four hours".

Supervisor: "That's okay, we were just calling as a welfare check. Take the day off".

Six Degrees

A day of activism yesterday. First off, a rally for Jim Reed (in the photo above) who is running for Congress. Jim is a homespun Democratic candidate. He has a penchant for big gaffs. A likable fella, his politics is a combination of awe shucks ranch style populism and Berkeley lawyer sophistication. He does listen to his constituents though; when he recommended raising the Shasta Dam as a public works project, he rescinded the proposal after meeting with Chico area Enviros. Then the guy went out and opposed the Keystone pipeline cause he wants to see the pipeline oil be refined in California. A bit more education is in order. However, he had a decent turnout for Chico--around 80 folks.

Then, while the girls and Joni went to see "The Lorax", I wandered around a bit and heard a lecture on climate change at Chico State.

And speaking of climate change, I also read the best book on the subject the other day: "Six Degrees" by Mark Lynas. The book, which came out in 2008, details exactly what is expected to happen at 1 degree Celsius (where we are now), two degrees Celsius and all the way up to six degrees Celsius; a separate chapter for every degree. He also documents what can be expected with a historical flare, going back in time to eras when the Earth was six degrees warmer. Scientists agree that six degrees by 2100 is more than a possibility. The news ain't good with this sort of warming.

So far we've had a pittance of warming (0.8 Celsius) with some rather graphic consequences. As I write this, an early season "swarm" of tornadoes struck the mid-west. Out here in California, we really haven't had much of a winter; our rainfall is 1/3 the normal amount (and the lowest on record) for this rainy season. It will only get worse.

The Call of the Wild...

Took the dogs out for a walk on this warm and sunny day. There is snow in the mountains from the last storm. The snow starts at around elevation 3,000 feet. We are at 2,000 feet.

Angel, the yellow lab, decided that the walk shouldn't end. She caught wind of something and off she went. The other dogs and I looked for her; called her; no use. And so I sit at this computer waiting for this beloved dog to come home. Worried.

Angel does this once and awhile. Usually with Joni; never with me. I'm not used to this notion of waiting for this dog to come home. On the walk I caught a glimpse of something running through the woods. A deer? Mountain lion? Coyote?

Gosh darn it Angel, where did you run off to? Did you decide that it was a good day for a swim and lumbered down to the swimming hole? Did you find something really stinky to roll in? Did you hear the "call of the wild"? Can't blame her for running off; it's a nice day.  A good day for sniffing and exploring and running and gallivanting and being free.

Enough! Angel come home!

*Addendum: Angel, the rascal dog, came home a few minutes after writing this. Almost like she heard me. And she brought us a gift:

Fog

Foggy here this morning. I take our three dogs and my broken toe to do the small loop. Later today I will drive down to Chico to hear Dr. Wallace Nichols talk about the benefits of getting outside into nature.

Nothing can make you feel more civil than to get outside into the wild.

The Apricot Tree

Sorry about the inactivity. A winter cold that has lasted all winter has laid me up somewhat. And then I stubbed my toe leading to a fracture that has slowly been healing over the last couple of weeks has kept me from getting outside.

Our apricot tree blossomed on February 23. Last year it bloomed on Feb 4. Other years it has blossomed as late as March 23. The rule of thumb seems to be that if it blooms before March 1, a late winter freeze takes out all the fruit. Of the five years we have been up here, we have only been blessed by delicious apricots in two of the years. We shall keep our fingers crossed that we actually get fruit this year.

Need Rain...

Well, we've had one awful nice winter. Too nice. February 5 today and we've had only sixteen inches of rain this year. We average sixty inches in a season (the season starts on July 1).

Down the Canyon

After a few days of rain, the sun came out today. I celebrated by taking a long hike down the canyon with my herd of dogs. It has been awhile since I've made that trek. But this rainy season seems like it is not going to amount to much. At least it hasn't thus far. Everything should be green. Verdant. Lush. Instead, we have lots of brown grass to look at.

Quiet

In the Napa Valley. I've been driving down to work the day before I start a string of work days because, well, frankly, I get too tired when I don't. Driving down the day of my shift 3 1/2 hours and then working an 8 hour shift just got too long of a day for me. I guess that might be part of being fifty years old.

And so I take my time and enjoy the drive. I drove down even earlier than normal today because there is lots of rain. Quite stormy. I wanted to drive during daylight hours. That's another thing about being fifty years of age: I don't see as well at night (and during rain storms) anymore.

I saw a herd of elk today.

It is quiet in this room at the hospital. I guess another thing about being fifty is that you don't mind having quiet times. Out of the hubbub of house and hearth and two really loud pre-teens playing their music that sounds like 27 trash cans full of snarling cats being dropped from two hundred feet onto a cement floor and, well, you get the story. Especially if  you are fifty or above.

It is quiet here. I listen to the rain. I have a beer. All is well.

A Drenching Rain...

A storm has blown in, finally, giving us some much needed rain. I took the dogs out for a hike in the rain; Abbey in her new rain jacket: she doesn't have a very good undercoat, so keeping her warm is important.

This storm is a drencher. Six to ten inches expected over the next week. Radio stations are asking people to stay home, as they are expecting many downed trees and powerlines. The mountains are getting snow. Kylie is excited that she might be able to use her snowboard soon.

I finished book number six last night while watching the Republican debate. You can find the Amazon review here.

Our Dryer...

The rain finally arrived. With gusto. I took the pack of dogs out and got soaked and cold. Hung the clothes up on our fancy Living Room Clothesline. Our winter dryer.

Obama didn't grant the permit for the Keystone Pipeline. Good news. Climate scientist, James Hansen says that if the tar sands of Canada are developed, it is "game over" for the climate. Carbon Dioxide levels are expected to shoot up to 600 parts per million if that happens. Stopping the Keystone Pipeline is a good first start in making sure that the tar sands are never developed in a big way.

It is all about choices. Do we want Renewable Energy or Fossil Fuel use? How long must we wait until we rapidly begin the transition to Renewables? Part of the reason we bought this place is because we were sick of waiting for Renewable Energy to become the cultural norm. Our carbon footprint isn't anything to brag about: I drive 1,500 miles a month.

Life gets in the way of dreams sometimes. We ran out of money to invest in our bigger plans. Joni had to stop working and we had other unexpected expenses.  So you go slow. Choosing not to have a dryer is one simple way to lower our carbon footprint. Recently we've been limiting our Television useage to just an hour or two a day (especially now since our batteries are shot; our small generator died; and the skies are cloudy).

I've been toying with asking my Manager to change my schedule so that I could take public transportation to work (my biggest carbon offender is driving to work). It would involve a certain amount of planning, but it is possible, without too much trouble, to take the bus to Sacramento, the train to Martinez and then a bus all the way to St. Helena. And it isn't too expensive. And surprisingly, not too time intensive.

Back to Keystone and choices. Public policy is just public/cultural priorities given legs. And the public good does require an Activist government to enforce decisions. You can't rely on the market to save a species or the planet. The lesson of the Great Auk (the first animal to go extinct in North America since the megafauna died 10,000 years ago) is the only case in point needed to show that without public policy, other beings die. That is an immoral tragedy.