Speaking of "Apple sucks," iCloud Private Relay is really a pain in the ass.

For better or worse, I watch a lot of YouTube videos. Yesterday they wouldn't load or play unless I turned off iCloud Private Relay. Before that, I kept getting alerts that it was down, or offline, or something. I just turned it off in Settings.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:02 Friday, 26 July 2024

Yeah, not TOS. (IYKYK)

So I did the poles this morning. I wish you could export the data from the Fitness app. I did a quick search just now, and it doesn't look possible. Something about the Health app, maybe? Why not just a simple "Export" action? Apple is so disappointing these days. I use their products because I'm pretty much embedded in their ecosystem, but I'm no longer an enthusiastic user. I'm just another one of their consumers, and my "customer satisfaction" is low and decreasing. They just suck these days. Suck. Suck. Suck.

Anyway, first time doing an "exercise" kind of walk using trekking poles. Took a few adjustments to get the height of the poles right. I'm not certain it's dialed in yet, but I was able to move quickly without hitting the tips on the swing forward.

You're supposed to bring the right pole forward with the left leg, and the left pole forward with the right leg. That took about three quarters of a mile and establishing a rhythm. On landing forward, the pole should be about where the opposite leg is. You're not swinging the pole way out in front and then pushing back. Again, once I got the rhythm down, that was pretty easy to get right. It was kind of frustrating at first.

I forgot to adjust the wrist straps. "Real" Nordic walking poles have these kind of fingerless gloves attached to the poles. The idea is that you don't grip the handles, because that causes fatigue, which I'm feeling right now as I'm typing. And the propulsive action is made through the wrist and the strap. I gripped the poles the whole walk.

It takes a certain amount of concentration or focus. Turns could mess me up where I'd end up kicking a pole. Sometimes I'd somehow miss landing the pole and I'd push back on the arm and there was nothing there, the end of the pole just kind of glanced off the pavement.

So, how did it go overall?

Well, the first mile was slower than the two days previous by a few seconds. That was because I had to stop and adjust the height of the poles. The second mile was 11 seconds faster than the fastest second mile of the two preceding. The third mile was in the middle of the two preceding walks, which seems odd. The final quarter mile was 2 seconds faster than the fastest of the two preceding. Overall, the average pace was kind of in the middle of the two preceding: 16:38 on Wednesday, 16:41 on Thursday and 16:39 today.

Really, those numbers, while "precise" to the second, probably aren't accurate to that degree of precision. Essentially, I think it's basically the same pace overall. That may change as I get more accustomed to using the poles.

That said, much larger difference in caloric expenditure and average heart rate. Wednesday and Thursday were about 432 calories (431 and 433), while this morning the watch reported 524 calories expended. Average heart rate for Wednesday and Thursday was 128/129, while this morning it was 138.

In my ignorance, I hadn't removed the rubber feet when we were hiking the gorges at first. I'd ended up wearing a hole through one of them before I learned that you're supposed to remove them on a trail. Much of the gorge trails are paved, sort of, so I'm not sure what the right answer is there. Anyway, I put them on for this walk and the one with the hole in it made a noisy *tink* every time it landed. I've ordered replacements.

I need to get a headband or something, to keep the sweat out of my eyes. I had to stop at one point just before finishing mile 2 to wipe the sweat from my eyes. My shirt was soaked, far more than yesterday. That's a bit of positive feedback, as it's what I was accustomed to seeing coming in from a run and seldom see on any of my walks around here.

My "simulated" arm movements in no way resembled what I did with the poles. So the data point there is that you can walk at a faster pace pumping your arms with your elbows bent, rather than just swinging them from your shoulders.

I can feel it in my triceps a little, but mostly in my wrists, probably because I was gripping the poles. I'll try and adjust the straps tomorrow before I start and see if I can relax my grip. At some point, I may just get poles with the gloves attached.

I hit the road at 0500, so I encountered no one on my walk. I like it that way, because I'd be annoyed if someone was overtaking me with a noisy trekking pole *tinking* every second or so. Plus, I probably looked pretty stupid, old fat guy out walking with sticks.

What do I care though?

Anyway, I'll practice some more until I think I've got this down enough where I'm not kicking sticks or missing the landing, gripping to fatigue or getting out of step with the poles. Then I think I'll add a little backpack and some weight in it. See how that feels.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:11 Friday, 26 July 2024

Germany under Hitler has been much on my mind for the past several years. It was never exactly clear to me just why the German people would go along with such a man. Willingly follow him into the abyss. I've read probably more than a dozen books about Hitler and the German people, and I'm no closer to truly understanding it.

I have perhaps a cloudy notion of why. People are social creatures, we don't exist as atomistic entities. There are exceptions, but fewer than most suppose, I think. Most folks who claims to be "independent," are either ignorant or delusional, maybe both. About a quarter of registered voters in my county in Florida are "independents." The majority of them vote Republican. Consistently. Every election. I've been told that what statistics seem to show is that "independents" generally vote the way their neighbors do.

We're social animals that exist in a hierarchy. I don't think human beings could ever exist in a truly egalitarian social order. Whether or not we could, the fact is that we do; and people are very aware of how people rank within the hierarchy, be it economic, political, military or academic.

We create hierarchies of authority, presumably to establish and maintain order. We understand authority, we know it when we see it, and we choose to either recognize it or not. Comply with it, or not. We use symbols and titles to display authority. Badges, uniforms, robes, coats, collars, furniture, housing, signage, vehicles. People with no authority sometimes try to impersonate someone with authority by appropriating these symbols.

Some people conflate power and authority. They believe authority gives people power. In doing so, they surrender their own agency. In Annie Jacobsen's Operation Paperclip, I read again and again, German scientists and doctors, most of them Nazi Party members, claiming that they were "just following orders," when they could no longer deny the horrible things they did. The generals at Nuremberg, likewise, claiming that if they didn't follow orders then there was no military, no discipline. It might as well just be a mob.

But people became Nazis willingly. Carried out mass murder on an unprecedented scale. (The same can be said about the United States Army Air Force in WW II, and the RAF, with the bombing raids on Japanese and German civilian population centers.)

It seems that nearly all people have some capacity for cruelty and violence, to one degree or another. Some people have an enormous capacity. Maybe they were damaged at some point in their lives. "Hurt people hurt people."

As social creatures, we have mechanisms in place to check that capacity, inhibit it, in most circumstances. Certainly in public settings. Not so much, perhaps, in more intimate ones.

Within the in-group, the larger society within which we identify, these mechanisms and measures are somewhat effective. The worst failures are considered newsworthy because we recognize them as failures.

But that capacity for cruelty and violence can be summoned by someone in a position of authority. A leader. Someone looked up to, held in some esteem. Like a "successful, billionaire businessman and former president." As horrible a human being as I believe Donald J. Trump is, there are many Americans who look up to him as a leader.

But in order to mobilize that capacity for cruelty and violence, the leader must identify a target, a threat, an "other" to which the ordinary norms of civil behavior do not apply. Because it's not "cruelty," if you're "protecting" something or someone you value. And violence is appropriate because of the high value of what is threatened.

Israel. Gaza.

We're social creatures. Irrational ones. Our cognitive abilities are limited. To the extent that we use them at all, it is often to justify or explain our interior emotional state to ourselves. To "rationalize" our behavior, our opinions.

I heard someone in a "focus group," broadcast on cable news, say that she thought Kamala Harris was an idiot. When asked what made her think that, she said something to the effect, "Because she hasn't done anything."

Irrational. Emotional.

Voter.

I thought, foolishly it seems, that Donald Trump would fade from the public arena. I expected a "Trump v2.0" would emerge. Someone who would exploit the same grievances, the same fear, the same prejudices, but in a more "civil" manner. Maybe Ron DeSantis, or, more likely, Rick Scott. DeSantis was trying to be "Trump v1.1," younger, with better hair.

What Trump has shown is that this kind of leadership works.

Not only is democracy on the ballot, so is who we are. Who we choose to look up to as leaders. What we are prepared to do in response to their "call to action."

I don't know how to reach the people who think Donald Trump's rhetoric is inspiring. I don't know how to convince them that they're being manipulated, conned into becoming the worst versions of themselves. I don't know how I should feel about them. I struggle with that, because most of my feelings are negative.

To no small degree, how this election turns will depend on what abilities Kamala Harris can summon as a leader. The contrast is clear, but it must be articulated clearly, to reach those minds that can be reached.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 12:27 Thursday, 25 July 2024

God bless Joe Biden.

Hit the pavement at 0520 this morning. Yesterday and today, I've kind of imagined I was walking with trekking poles, like "Nordic walking," just to see what that felt like.

My morning walks have evolved a bit as I've tried to get more caloric and cardiovascular benefits. I started out with the camera, which was great for getting early morning shots of birds and sunrises, but kind of limited the amount of speed or exertion I could achieve.

So I ditched the camera, which allowed me to pick up the pace. I let my arms swing at my side, but kept them kind of naturally straight. When it was cool out, I could get a good pace going and more caloric "burn," and a little heart rate elevation. But as it got warmer and more humid, that pace declined a bit. It was most evident on the walk by the location I found myself at when my watch announced "Exercise ring closed."

At my best pace, I would find myself past the clubhouse entrance, while a more typical pace would find me behind the clubhouse somewhere, and a slow pace might find me completing the exercise ring just after making the turn onto the path behind the clubhouse.

Well, "imaginary" Nordic walking had me raising my hands and bending my elbows, where my arm swing resembles more of a "pumping" action than a "swinging" one. While I haven't replicated my best pace on cool days, yesterday and today had me coming around the corner of the clubhouse, approaching the entrance when the exercise ring closed.

My pace suffered a bit this morning, because I paused to take this shot with my phone, but it was still faster than yesterday's. It was 77°F this morning, and 94% humidity. My shirt was drenched when I finished, and it felt like I'd probably have been better off wearing running shorts. I normally wear a ball cap, but I took it off and stuck it in my belt behind my back because it was pretty damn warm and I wanted my head to cool.

Tomorrow I'll try it with the poles. I go early so I encounter fewer people (and flies). If this feels good, I'll try and add a backpack with a little bit of weight. (If nothing else, it'll empty my pockets, which I occasionally strike with my hands.)

While I was fairly pleased with how we did hiking the gorges in New York this summer, I think I can do better and I want to be able to do it for as long as I can. I recall walking up the stairs at my condo not much more than a decade ago, when I was still running half-marathons, and I was carrying a 40 pound bag of dog food. I had lost about that much weight running, and it made me realize how much extra effort it takes to carry that much weight around. Granted, it's distributed differently, but it's a lot. Knowing we're going to be going back to the hills around the Finger Lakes more regularly and for longer periods of time is something to look forward to, and an added incentive to get fit.

We'll see how it goes.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:24 Thursday, 25 July 2024

And we're back...

Mitzi enjoyed the Auto Train, and it's likely we'll do it again on at least the southbound leg. It is expensive, but on the southbound trip we can't stay at her daughter's place in DC, we have to get farther south to avoid the hell that is I-95 in the afternoon in South Carolina. So factor in the expense of a night in a hotel, along with the gas, and a little of the sting goes away.

And no matter how you break it up, two days on I-95 is just not fun. We can do the northbound run to DC because we'll leave at oh-dark-thirty and switch drivers every couple of hours. The last hour is brutal, because it's DC, but we've proven we can make it in twelve hours. We have a comfortable place to stay, visit and rest for a couple of days. And it's a relatively short, and mostly beautiful six hours to the Finger Lakes from DC.

We will be going back. While we were up there, we found a little place, and we currently have it under contract. It's not exactly a tiny home, but at 950 square feet, one bedroom and one bath, it's not exactly palatial. We're already thinking about how we might build a little guest cottage, affordably.

We skipped the Finger Lakes last year because Mitzi went to Greece with her daughter. It was a bucket-list trip for her, but she's not enamored with international air travel anymore, neither the expense nor the experience. We will likely do some more travel in North America, but flying overseas is probably not in our future.

So our summers will likely be all spent in the Finger Lakes, where we can travel from there by car to visit friends and family. And host them, once we get those logistics figured out. Fall trips are likely in the future as well, to see the foliage. Six to eight weeks each summer, maybe longer. Her daughter and son-in-law can get up there from DC for a weekend anytime they choose. We've met one of the neighbors and he seems like a nice guy. Raises Angus beef as a hobby, though his wife wants him to quit so they can travel! He's the seller's dad, and so we're pretty confident we'll have someone to keep an eye on the place while we're not there.

Upstate New York is simply beautiful. It's not exactly a climate haven, winters will be milder, but the extremes will still be, well, extreme. And tornados are now a thing there.

Like any major purchase, we wrestled with the, "Are we crazy?" question. I think it's a pretty safe investment. We've no plans to turn it into a vacation rental property, but I suppose that could be an option someday. The real estate market there is hot right now, at least according to the home inspector and the real estate lawyer we're working with.

For me, it does offer a certain peace of mind that we have someplace to run to if something catastrophic happens here. It's a rural location with well and septic tank, but it does have a fiber internet connection. We can build on the land if we want to at some point. We'll be looking at improving its resilience capability. It's not a compound, by any means. But it's a getaway, a hideout maybe.

We have a busy couple of months coming up, travel-wise. I've committed to attending my 45th class reunion at the Naval Academy in September, and Mitzi's nephew is getting married in October.

But maybe we'll get up there one more time this year.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:02 Wednesday, 24 July 2024

We're all checked in. Boarding isn't until 3:30, but figured I'd kill some time here in the marmot.

I'm kind of impressed by the number of people here, and we got here right when they started admitting cars. It's a Monday, not near a federal holiday, mid-summer and still a lot of people, and their cars, take this expensive trip down to Florida.

Not a lot of kids and families. Probably skewed toward the older age demographic, as one might expect.

As an aside, my Quartiles streak continues, I think it's up to 72 days making Expert. I've never gotten all the words, but I usually get it down to something between two and six. It's the first thing I do in the morning, when I wake up and don't necessarily want to get right out of bed. I stay with it until I finish it, which doesn't take very long. It's not a hard game, but it does reward persistence.

I've got a bunch of pictures I still need to upload. Not exactly looking forward to that. Plus culling the hundreds I've already added to Photos. I could work on that today. We'll see.

Anyway, last time I did this was in 2019 and I didn't bring a laptop. I was using my new to me 10.5" iPad Pro with the attached keyboard cover, which doesn't run Tinderbox. I've got the iPad mini with me on this trip for Kindle and Books.

Anyway, that's it for now.

"All aboard!"

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 12:53 Monday, 22 July 2024

Our vacation is nearly over. This afternoon we'll board the Auto Train for the ride down to Florida, avoiding a drive through most of Virginia, all of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Apart from saving mileage on the car, it'll preserve my sanity. I hate driving through South Carolina.

This is also the part of the trip that is utterly devoid of scenery. Driving through New York and Pennsylvania was beautiful. Traffic wasn't bad either. It was also relatively cool.

Having been away from the Finger Lakes for two years, the feeling of enchantment was very strong. Toward the end of our visit, I could somewhat place myself in my adolescent mind that lived in Upstate New York and took the landscape largely for granted.

But I could also recall my Dad, who never seemed to tire of the views of the hills and the fields and the trees. I don't think I will ever tire of them again, or take them for granted. It is a stunningly beautiful landscape.

To be sure, the region suffers economically and there are stark reminders of that everywhere. But there are also signs of renewal.

Apart from the landscape, there is so much history there. Not all of it is great, General Sullivan driving the indigenous people from the Finger Lakes under orders from George Washington in 1789 is a shameful legacy. But abolition and women's rights are two progressive movements that owe much to the region.

We'll be going back. Mitzi is as enthralled as I am.

I ❤️ NY.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:54 Monday, 22 July 2024

We were in the car, in Pennsylvania, when Mitzi's sister-in-law texted us, "Biden is out." We turned on the radio and listened to coverage from NPR.

Since we arrived at the hotel yesterday evening, I've read much of the coverage. Right now, it looks like the Democratic Party isn't going to form a circular firing squad, and is closing ranks behind Harris. That's the best news.

There have been many tributes to Joe Biden, and they are all well earned and richly deserved. For too many Americans, the contrast between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is a perverse one. Joe Biden is a decent man, a statesman, a compassionate human being, a competent leader. Donald Trump is none of these things, yet the Republican Party elevates him as their candidate. It's a bizarre trait in human nature. Some sort of self-loathing, self-destructive desire born out of fear and anger, and bad leadership.

For the first time since the debate, I feel more confident, more hopeful.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:39 Monday, 22 July 2024

The antiquing was limited to one enormous location that was a bit overwhelming. There are few bargains to be had these days, when anyone can do a quick search on eBay or elsewhere to see if something has some value to someone. There were a couple of old AM radios that were in very good shape that probably were good deals, but I didn't want to carry them home.

The highlight yesterday was the tour of the former Seneca Army Depot. As often as we've been here, I'd never really looked into it, other than hearing about "white deer tours." We signed up for the bus tour and it turned out we were the only ones. Good for us, but kind of a shame because it's a fascinating tour.

Mitzi came for the deer, I came for the history.

We saw a lot of deer, most of them brown. They're accustomed to the bus and not super shy. I should have mounted the 40-150mm/f2.8, instead of the 12-100mm/f4. I needed more reach and more aperture. But, again, I wasn't really that interested in the deer.

Briefly, the decommissioned facility consists of 10,000 acres of fenced property. The white deer aren't albinos, they just carry a recessive gene that doesn't produce brown hair, so they're ordinary white tailed deer and the other deer don't know the difference. Since they're fenced in, hunted in limited numbers and well fed, they pretty much thrive in there.

The depot itself was constructed in preparation for WW II. The federal government essentially kicked around 150 families off their land, with only a few weeks' notice to clear out. Five hundred concrete ammunition "igloos" were constructed in a relatively short time. The manpower necessary to complete the project created problems of its own with inadequate housing and sanitation.

The bus tour was scheduled for 90 minutes, but our guide took us around for over two hours. We were able to get out and enter one of the igloos, which was fun just for the acoustics. There's also a beaver dam on the property, and an eagles' nest that seems to have recently been abandoned after being occupied/used for almost two decades.

There is a lot of history in this region, and I've enjoyed getting to learn about some of it. If you're ever in the Finger Lakes, this is a worthwhile tour.

Don't quite know what we're up to today. Packing at some point, but we'll probably get out and see something. I know Mitzi wants to buy some wine.

After some clouds and rain earlier in the week, the last two days have been wonderful. Sunny, relatively cool with low humidity. I'm going to miss this place next week when we're back in the swamp.

Literally.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:31 Saturday, 20 July 2024

Spent some time in Seneca Falls yesterday. Lovely little village. The National Women's Hall Of Fame is located there, and we toured that facility. It's located in an old woolen mill, the Seneca Knitting Mills, which was in operation for over 100 years, closing its doors in 1999.

Seneca Falls is also the location of the First Convention for Woman's Rights (July 19-20, 1848), and the church where it was held is a national park with a separate building housing a number of exhibits about women's rights. The church had been significantly altered throughout its history, it's been restored to the closes approximation of what it is believed to have looked like. There are portions of the original brick remaining, and the roof beams and decking are supposedly original.

The village is also supposed to be part of the inspiration for Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, where, in 1917, a young man drowned saving the life of a woman who had jumped into the canal. The village leans into the movie with George Bailey Lane and Clarence Street.

We stopped by the post office so Mitzi could put a couple of postcards in the mail. It was quite an imposing edifice for such a small town.

Then it was back to Geneva to catch the 2:00 PM boat for the lake tour. We've been on Cayuga Lake every time we've been up here. This is the first time we've been on Seneca. Since we're at the north end of the lake, the geography is much different, without the high cliffs adjacent to the shore. The air was actually quite cool and I spent some time trying to memorize the feeling before heading back to Florida.

Stopped at a craft brewery on the way back to the cottage and enjoyed a couple of beers and a view of the lake while sitting outside on the deck.

Mitzi had a zoom meeting today, so we're just heading out now to a couple of antique stores, before we do the bus tour this evening.

Only a couple of days left before we head back. While I'll welcome being in my own bed, I will really miss the scenery and the weather here.

Speaking of weather, I learned yesterday that a tornado touched down in my hometown, Canastota, as part of that severe weather system that went through on Tuesday. One man was killed in the village. Pretty rare for a tornado up here. My brother said that historically, there are an average of 13 tornado warnings per year, seldom an actual tornado. This year, there have been 62 tornado warnings and 12 confirmed tornados.

"We're not in Kansas anymore."

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 12:18 Friday, 19 July 2024

Still have some time before we have to head out. Figured I'd noodle around here a bit.

Houston is struggling with the aftermath of a Category 1 Hurricane Beryl. Thousands of people still without power, more than a week after the hurricane in the middle of a heatwave. People are threatening line crews with AK-47s.

Awesome.

But it does make me feel better about having the rooftop solar array and battery storage. We wouldn't be able to necessarily run 100% of the normal household loads, but I'm fairly confident we'd be able to keep the house comfortable and refrigerator running.

That said, I do think FPL, as shitty a corporate citizen as it may be, has done a better job with its grid infrastructure, burying much of it underground. I don't know how JEA would fare, as much of their system remains above ground, and older neighborhoods have a lot of old trees.

I think I've written before that, "We're all preppers now." If you haven't made a sincere effort to evaluate your readiness for an extreme weather event or some other unexpected disruption, you should probably do so. I haven't gone so far as to stockpile food, but I'm thinking about it. I'll probably get some pushback on that, but I'll figure something out.

Frankly, the thing that troubles me the most is sanitation, specifically human waste. If the power is on, and fuel is flowing, I'm not too worried. But if the disruption is significant enough with regard to fuel deliveries, the emergency generators that keep the sewage lift stations running are going to be useless. Florida is flat, there is not "downhill" for shit to flow.

Apparently, one of the home solutions is a 5-gallon bucket with a lid and sawdust. How to ultimately dispose of that is another question.

I guess some Republican senators harassed and bullied the director of the Secret Service at the Republican Convention. That's awesome. I thought that was what the House of Representatives was for. But the Republican Party is little more than a mob these days, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Sad and frightening at the same time. To me, anyway. I suppose the MAGA crowd love that.

Well, time to get ready to go I guess. It is a lovely day out there. I'd have taken a walk if this place made that worthwhile.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:21 Thursday, 18 July 2024

Decent sunset last night. Supposed to be sunny all day today. We toured the Smith Opera House in Geneva yesterday morning. The guide was a drama professor from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and she was very good. The exterior facade is as the theater was constructed in 1894, the interior is as it was remodeled in the 1920s. It's a treasure, and we really enjoyed the tour.

Been watching a juvenile bald eagle fly by several times this morning. I should be out there with a camera.

Today we're going to spend some time this morning over at Seneca Falls, then we have an afternoon boat tour, just as an excuse to get some time on the water. Tomorrow we're doing an evening tour of a former ammunition facility, which has some interesting history and wildlife.

We've had some good luck with rentals up here in the past. I can't say I've been as pleased on this trip. The previous house was comfortable, although it offered little in the way of a view. This cottage has a decent, not spectacular, view of the lake, which is its most appealing feature.

I pulled the filters out of the mini-split and they hadn't been cleaned in some time, so I washed those and reinstalled them. Place smells a little less funky. It does have a bigger TV than the previous place, and we've been able to watch Netflix before going to bed, which isn't very comfortable either. Both have had better internet service than previous places we've stayed at here that had better amenities and spectacular views.

These places all have a little guest book where people write about their experiences, and they're all laudatory to an almost absurd degree. Likewise, the online reviews omit all the annoyances, like a tiny bathroom, funky smells and a three-quarter mile dirt road to get there. I guess they want to get good reviews as renters.

Places have gotten more expensive each year, and the experience hasn't been as good. We looked at the place we rented a few years ago and it's way out of our price range now.

It's a shame, because I really love it up here. I can't imagine how I'd be feeling if I'd have been in Florida during this summer of insanity. I've been making more of an effort to be less online. I've been reading books when we're in the house. The Operation Paperclip book is fascinating, and it prompted me to read portions of another ebook I have on the Nuremberg interviews.

In any event, although I do love the region, I'll be happy to be in our own space once again next week. Get back into a regular exercise routine and a more sensible diet.

We're still committed to coming up here each summer, but we're starting to explore other options for accommodations. We may have ten years of relatively decent mobility left, if we're careful and lucky. The Finger Lakes affords a wide range of attractions, history, wildlife, local food, water, beautiful scenery. It's no mystery why it's getting more expensive.

Perhaps a different approach is appropriate.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:26 Thursday, 18 July 2024

Mitzi and I switch using our iPhones on CarPlay in the RAV4. For much of this trip, Siri has been silent when it comes to navigation directions on Mitzi's phone. Somehow, magically I guess, it started working again at some point. But it was incredibly loud.

While silence was puzzling and annoying to me, the loud volume was intolerable enough to prompt me to do a search. It turns out that Siri's volume for navigation is in the Map app settings, and there are three choices, "Softer," "Normal," and "Louder." Oddly, there's no choice for "Silence."

So why we couldn't get spoken directions for so long remains a mystery. Why they returned at "Louder," is likewise inscrutable.

And, is it just me? Why in the world does spoken directions have a separate volume control? What kind of sense does that make? I'm sure there's some "reason," but it isn't obvious to me. Possibly because I'm not a "user experience" expert. I'm just a user with a shitty experience.

At one point, I used Siri to ask her to lower the volume. She told me to use the car's volume controls! Which we'd tried so many times already, to no avail.

Stuff like this just drives me nuts. It makes me feel foolish and stupid. It never occurred to me to check the Map app's Settings, because volume control has two dedicated buttons on the device and another control on the steering wheel!

"Minds greater than our own," and all that.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:50 Wednesday, 17 July 2024

Those thunderstorms on Monday did a number on power lines south of here. Trees and limbs took down power lines. We stopped at a winery that was open, most of the places we'd stopped at were closed, even though they were advertised to be open. This one had a generator.

That prompted us to check the news, and we learned about the outages. It hadn't affected us up here near Geneva.

Had some more rain yesterday, and some really high winds late in the afternoon, but it calmed and cleared around sunset, which didn't turn out to be anything spectacular. Supposed to be cloudy today with a chance of rain this afternoon, sunny tomorrow. But the temps have all been mild. People get kind of cranky at 85°F here, with a breeze. I'm enjoying it!

We're going to tour an old theater/opera house in Geneva this morning, then head over to Seneca Falls and check out some history.

Mitzi watched part of the RNC convention yesterday. I shut the door to the bedroom and read a book. For all the talk about "listening to one another," I can't stand to listen to Republican politicians.

Kottke linked to a nice sentiment yesterday. I don't have a clock to wind, but I did post something to the marmot.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:37 Wednesday, 17 July 2024

Did a little sight-seeing and grocery shopping yesterday morning. Came back to the cottage and put everything up and had lunch.

Went out to visit the Finger Lakes Visitor Center in Geneva, which we'd never been to before. Pretty nice facility, I think it's new since we were last in Geneva, which may have been three years ago, or four.

They have a lot of regional products, a snack bar, the usual tourist literature, a wine tasting bar that may sell beer. (I saw folks sitting outside on the patio with what I assume were beers.) We walked along the pedestrian path along the shoreline, found a bench and sat and looked at the lake for a while. Saw an osprey dive and catch a large fish. I had the Stylus 1s with me, 300mm effective focal length. I saw the osprey get set for its dive, but wasn't quick enough to get the camera turned on and lens extended. 300mm wasn't long enough anyway, but got some distant shots of an osprey with a large fish in its talons.

Shot this on the way back to the car when the severe weather warnings started going off. We made our way back to the car and headed home. When we got back into the house, the heavens opened up. Pretty intense downpour for a while. The car certainly needed it, it's covered with dust and dirt.

Spent the rest of the afternoon reading the book about Operation Paperclip. Judge Cannon and J.D. Vance intruded. Watched Netflix and went to bed.

The summer of madness continues.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:30 Tuesday, 16 July 2024

Left Trumansburg yesterday for our last week in the Finger Lakes. We're near Geneva, NY at the north end of Seneca Lake. To get to the cottage, we had to drive down a long dirt road (with speed bumps).

In what I take as a good sign, a woodchuck just showed up in the backyard. Didn't really expect to see one here. Mitzi says an eagle just flew by. I saw a large shape but didn't see it long enough to identify it.

This place doesn't have fiber, but it does have decent internet. About the same as back home, though upload speeds are a bit lower.

We drove up 96 yesterday, and it was part of the route of a half(?) Ironman competition. A lot of folks in Geneva for that event, but most of them were in a park down by the lake. We didn't have any problem finding parking and getting lunch.

The cottage is large and fairly comfortable, but it's got its quirks. One small bathroom. There's a small dock, but the stairs seem rickety and the handrails are painted black, so I couldn't use them to go down the steps last night, too hot to touch. May try it again this morning.

Trying, but mostly failing, to keep the world from intruding. Seems to be hanging over our heads like the clouds in the photo. Just have to keep breathing, I guess. Anyway, six more days here then back on the road. Heading back to Florida where the insanity "goes to eleven."

So I've got that to look forward to.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:23 Monday, 15 July 2024

The capacity for violence is an inherently human trait, and therefore not unique to any particular political affiliation. In a curious irony, early reports say the shooter was a registered Republican.

This act, apart from the pain of loss and suffering inflicted on the murdered and wounded and their families, only serves to further roil what was already an extremely contentious, indeed dangerous, race.

I don't expect either candidate or party to tone down their rhetoric. I regret that this incident occurred at all, but I reject the claim by some that Democratic campaign rhetoric incited it. It seems to me that Republican insistence that the 2nd Amendment is the last defense against tyranny, and its steadfast resistance to efforts to regulate the ownership of semi-automatic rifles, are more proximately responsible for political violence than anything uttered by the Biden campaign.

A party already prone to conspiracy theories is likely to make this event into something not remotely what it likely really was, an all too familiar story of a young man with a gun, a grievance and insufficient maturity and intellect to responsibly own a weapon, with the violent and tragic consequences that too often ensue.

If anything, I expect Republican rhetoric to grow more extreme. How that resonates with voters not already in Trump's camp, I don't know. I hope it doesn't.

How it resonates with young men armed with semi-automatic rifles and nurturing their own grievances is a different, and more troubling question.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 05:58 Sunday, 14 July 2024

Picked a couple of pounds of blueberries yesterday. It was a pleasant experience. There was only one other family in the field with us, no bugs to speak of, plenty of berries and it wasn't hot. The sun was kind of intense, but there was a breeze.

The farm store offered a range of baked goods, jams and jellies. I had a cookie concoction consisting of an oatmeal cookie with white chocolate chips (Yes, I know. It's not "chocolate."), and a lemon glaze. I'm counting on the fiber and protein content of the oatmeal making it "healthy," though I know that's just wishful thinking.

We stopped by a former firehouse in Burdett, NY that has been converted to kind of an indoor farmer's market. All local or regional products. Very pricey, but it supports local agriculture. Bought some mushrooms, a steak and an onion. Dinner tonight.

ars technica has a piece on sea level rise in the southeast. The St Johns Riverkeeper, Lisa Rinamen is quoted in it. I know Lisa and I support the St Johns and Matanzas riverkeepers. None of this is really a surprise, apart perhaps from the increasing rate, though even that was anticipated by some. Historically, sea level rise occurs in pulses, periods of rapid rise.

But we keep shoveling taxpayer money into the sea. At best, it might buy time, but we waste that time and that money by doing nothing meaningful to address the risk. But Florida faces so many risks that it's doing nothing about that it's hard to single out sea level rise.

What's going to happen to the housing market when you can't get insurance, and therefore can't get a mortgage? We're one major hurricane away from an insurance industry collapse. We will learn just how "effective" those "reforms" the legislature enacted will be. They chiefly make it easier for insurance companies to deny claims, or under-compensate claims, and make it harder to sue insurance companies.

Then there's the heat, which I guess we're just going to ignore.

And the generation of Republican environmental stewardship that led to things like the Piney Point environmental disaster. There's more where that came from, as the saying goes.

They tell us they don't get much snow around here anymore. My kids and grandkids are all in Florida, or I'd seriously consider, I mean seriously consider pulling up stakes and moving up here. Taxes are higher. Prices are higher. Much of rural upstate New York can be Trump country, but it feels less rabid than Florida. The state has the opposite problem from Florida with a seemingly permanent Democratic majority in the legislature because of NYC, but the governor's office flips back and forth from time to time. This state isn't laser-focused on culture war issues and the governor's political ambitions.

And the views. I asked the guy at the blueberry farm if he kind of takes the scenery for granted. He's lived here all his life, so he allowed that he probably does. I don't know how long it'd take before I stopped being moved by it. Florida is claustrophobic, which may go some way toward explaining why it's so insane. Even in "rural" Florida, it's mostly just flat. There are no expansive vistas that can open your mind and your heart. Just the heat, the humidity, the mosquitoes, the gators and all the invasive exotic pets, and the selfish cruelty of its Republican ruling class.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:09 Saturday, 13 July 2024

Mitzi spotted this on the wall this morning. I took the opportunity to play with the TG-6. I haven't practiced very much using the macro feature. This is a single frame using the flash. I took some stacked images using the LED lamp, but I thought this one showed the eyes a bit better.

Anyway, not a great photo, but something I don't see very often at home.

Rained quite a bit yesterday, but we got our little hike in early. I guess we're picking blueberries today. Maybe. Well, Mitzi is anyway.

We watched the utterly forgettable Family Plan on Apple TV+ last night. They have some kind of Samsung TV streaming service on the smart TV here, and we've watched some of its programming. It's pretty generic, decade or more older reality TV stuff, a couple of movie channels that seem to play the same old movies over and over. So I've been streaming movies from my iPhone via AirPlay.

We watched The Good German the night before, before I knew George Clooney was adding his voice to the cacophony of chaos.

The Good German deals with, as a plot element, Operation Paper Clip. In the movie, a file Clooney is looking for mentions that the contents were moved to Operation Overcast. I hadn't heard of that before, so I wondered if it was a fictional creation, or something real. Turns out, was the official name of Operation Paperclip, which was something that emerged because of all the paperclips holding all the dossiers together.

Anyway, looking into that led me to Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America, by Annie Jacobsen. That's available on Kindle Unlimited, so I've started that book. I was somewhat aware of the effort to enlist former Nazi scientists in American research efforts after the war, but I wasn't aware of the extent of it, mostly Von Braun and the rocket people. It was far more extensive than that, and involved some pretty unsavory people.

(Anecdotally, one of the gunners mate (missiles) techs aboard BAINBRIDGE (CGN-25, not the DDG) told me that the launcher logic sequencer for the Mk 10 launcher was designed by a former German scientist or engineer. He supposedly had a breakdown or went nuts after designing it, because it was so complex. No idea if there's anything to that story, but it stayed with me.)

Before getting into the Paperclip book, I went looking for something in my Apple Books collection, and started reading The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany 1944-45, by Ian Kershaw.

So I have three books going right now, Heather Cox Richardson's, Jacobsen's and Kershaw's.

They are all kind of related in the sense that I'm trying to understand how supposedly good people can be persuaded to do horrible things, go on to do them with great efficiency, and how, after a conflict, we can look the other way and do business with people who did horrible things. Also, how people who did horrible things are sometimes remediated into being somehow "respectable" people. This also speaks to the Confederacy, Robert E. Lee, "heritage not hate," and so on.

Everything is contingent, I guess.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:19 Friday, 12 July 2024

It was a short hike, but it was lovely. Since the gorge is right in the middle of town, it gets a lot of traffic. A lot of steps, but otherwise easy.

We stuck around and had lunch at the Moosewood vegetarian/vegan restaurant. I had a nice black bean burger.

We stopped by the Ithaca town hall to see if the clerk that issued us our marriage license still worked there. She does not, she retired about five years ago. The woman we spoke to sees her often and will let her know we stopped by. When we received our marriage certificate, the clerk had enclosed a very nice note and invited us to stop by anytime we were in town. We've been to Ithaca many times since then, but never really made the time to drop by. Today we did.

It's been cloudy and overcast most of the day. On the ride home we could see rain off in the distance. Even cloudy, it's beautiful.

I suppose I could come to take these vistas for granted again eventually, but for now they continue to enthrall. There's so much ugliness in the world, I'm grateful for the beauty that nature offers.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 14:25 Thursday, 11 July 2024

Went to Corning, New York yesterday, about fifty minutes from here. We visited the Corning Glass Museum, our first visit since 2017 when we stopped in on our wedding road trip. Mitzi still had the paper map and program from that visit, much to the delight of the young lady at the admission desk. She asked if she could keep them.

We toured the museum, focusing on the things we hadn't seen the first time. It's a large museum and full of fascinating artifacts, art and exhibits. Unique, perhaps, in that respect.

It also has a very large gift shop. Mitzi managed to escape unscathed, while I bought a "crystal ball" and a glass globe.

From there, we went into Corning proper and had a nice lunch at an Italian restaurant. I had an Italian sausage sub, while Mitzi had a small pizza. It's an authentic Italian restaurant, family owned and operated. Dessert was a delicious cannoli, that I probably should have skipped.

Mitzi saw a doe with two fawns in the yard yesterday morning. We saw them later in the evening down by the creek. We also saw a rabbit when we got back from the museum. So we've seen a fairly representative sample of common rural New York fauna, a woodchuck, skunk, rabbit and deer. There's a nesting pair of robins outside as well, who keep a wary eye on me when I'm in the hammock.

We're going to hike Cascadilla gorge this morning, also called Giant's Staircase because it's mostly steps. Looks like three quarters of a mile each way, so we'll go up first, then turn around and come back down and go look for lunch in Ithaca.

We're having dinner in a microbrewery tonight, which is supposed to feature live entertainment.

Only a couple more days here, then we'll head up to Geneva for our last week of vacation.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:25 Thursday, 11 July 2024

I was a longtime subscriber of The NY Times in the digital era. I was not a paper (dead-tree) subscriber at any time. I had high respect for the reporting of the Times, notwithstanding the Judith Miller episode, which, in hindsight, should have been a clue.

I unsubscribed in April, 2022 and wrote about it in September. Lately, I've been reading about other folks unsubscribing.

I don't miss the reporting, I play Quartiles on Apple News+ rather than Wordle. (Current streak: 60 days. Longest streak: 60 days. Expert rate: 100%) There are other sources of good journalism, though I do recognize that there are infinitely many more sources of bad journalism.

I've managed to mostly stuff the Biden candidacy into some locked compartment in my mind. I have no say in the decision or outcome, and I will vote against Donald Trump in November regardless of who the candidate is. Any candidate the Democrats would run would be flawed and problematic in some way, and the mainstream press would make that somehow equivalent to the horror that is Donald J. Trump.

So I just don't think about it.

I'm still struggling with the Supreme Court decisions. In many ways, that's a far worse development than turmoil within the Democratic Party, yet it gets very little oxygen. That's the problem with a journalism industry built on capitalism, competing in an attention economy. We are fucked six ways from Sunday, but there's nothing to do about it now, structurally.

We must defeat Donald J. Trump, and we must place a potential Trump presidency within the context of the entirely new constitutional regime invented out of whole cloth by those six "originalist" liars on the court.

Most of the mainstream press will continue to focus on Democratic dysfunction. It will be up to citizens to write letters to the editor of local papers, using social media, speaking out in public forums, and talking to friends, neighbors and acquaintances, as civility may allow.

Heather Cox Richardson is a good source of information and historical context in this matter. Today's post is a good example. If you're not subscribed to her RSS feed, please add it. (I do get an empty entry every day, along with the day's post. She generally posts every day, if only to report that she has nothing to post that day.)

I don't know what's going to happen in the fall. I know I can make myself genuinely sick with worry. I'm trying not to. I'll do my best to "keep the faith," and do my best to help democracy and the rule of law to prevail.

I hope you will too.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:57 Wednesday, 10 July 2024

Heather Cox Richardson writes about the 14th Amendment and the claims Republicans are making about "fetal personhood."

But it was her mention of the "equal protection" clause that caught my eye.

It seems to me, and perhaps this has already been mentioned elsewhere, that any notion of presidential immunity conflicts with the 14th Amendment and the equal protection clause.

Are we not, as citizens, entitled to the protection of the law when it is violated by the president?

I have the decision open in Preview, but I haven't read it because I get sick just thinking about it.

There are so many crises happening all at once, it's hard to figure out which is the wolf nearest the sled. I guess it's ensuring Donald Trump is defeated in November. But there are so many fires to fight besides that one.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:35 Tuesday, 9 July 2024

We hiked Buttermilk Falls this morning. Got there before 9:00 am, which meant we encountered fewer people on the trail.

It's only about three quarters of a mile each way, but about 463 feet of elevation gain. This was much easier than Treman, but still challenging. I'm getting better with the trekking poles, and I'm certain it would have been far harder without them.

After the hike we had a picnic lunch at the lower falls in the shade, enjoying the breeze. At home it was 93°F with a heat index over 100°F. I thought about that as I lay on the bench of the picnic table, staring up at the branches over my head.

I love New York.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 13:01 Monday, 8 July 2024

A glimmer of hope.

Here's hoping we can come together and do the same.

Merci, mes amis.

Merci.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 18:35 Sunday, 7 July 2024