We hiked the gorge trail and the rim trail at Robert Treman state park today. It is described as being a "moderate," hike. I found it to be very challenging. I was exhausted when I went to bed before nine this evening, but now I find I can't sleep.

While we were hiking at both Treman and Taughannock, we saw people in the stream beds, or in the water, though the rules of the park specifically say to remain on the trail. But in America today, rules are for chumps.

I saw Heather Cox Richardson on the NewsHour yesterday evening. This ruling by the Supreme Court has been foremost in my consciousness ever since I learned of it. Again, I am dumbfounded that we seem to be so accepting of the overturning of one of the foundational principles of our country, our republic, which "Republicans" are always so eager to constantly point out, is not a "democracy," a "democratic republic."

This grotesque obscenity of a ruling has simultaneously reconciled two pernicious claims of the Republican Party.

The first is that, by making the office of president above the law, we may now have only the 2nd Amendment as a guarantor of our liberty.

I have never accepted that argument. It was the rule of law, that guaranteed our liberty, as imperfectly as that has been realized in our more than two centuries of existence. Imperfect, because it often failed many of our citizens, but perfectible, as we have striven to make real the vision proclaimed in the Declaration Of Independence, that "all men are created equal."

Now, that vision is rendered meaningless. The Supreme Court, an unelected, unaccountable body, some members of which have now been unequivocally shown to be corrupt to their core, has pissed all over Thomas Jefferson's words.

One man is above the law! One man is unaccountable to the law. And they willfully committed this obscenity with the knowledge and example of Donald J. Trump and January 6th, and had the incomprehensible temerity to suggest that the dissenting justices were relying on "extreme hypotheticals," to characterize the nature of this decision.

January 6th was no hypothetical.

The second isn't specifically a Republican claim, though they are now all irrevocably stained by Donald J. Trump and this court's faithless decision. It is Donald J. Trump's disgusting and pernicious belief that America's service members and veterans are "losers" and "suckers," as has been documented repeatedly by men of greater honor and integrity than Donald J. Trump and his "MAGA army" of bootlickers and sycophants.

The Supreme Court has not only pissed on the words of Thomas Jefferson, they have pissed on the graves of every American who made the supreme sacrifice, laid down his or her life, gave "the last full measure of devotion," in service to our nation to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic."

Apparently, none of us who swore that oath really understood what we were getting ourselves into. Only those solons in fancy robes and free RVs, who have never worn the uniform of our nations armed forces, knew the real truth.

This "decision," this grotesque obscenity perpetrated on the American people and a government that has been an imperfect beacon of liberty for more than two centuries, by unelected and unaccountable, corrupt ideologues, demagoguing from the bench, has made every sacrifice empty. Meaningless.

Every scarred body, every mangled limb, every damaged psyche borne by America's veterans is now a joke. Donald J. Trump was right, we were suckers. There was nothing in it for us. The Supreme Court has made everything we believed in empty. Meaningless.

May God damn these faithless sycophants, and may their immortal souls burn in Hell for all eternity.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 01:25 Wednesday, 3 July 2024

We've seen a bit of wildlife here at the VRBO. Two fawns wandered into the yard yesterday evening. One seemed a little concerned or curious about the hammock I put up between two trees. (Always look up before hanging a hammock.) This morning, a skunk wandered into the yard, and may be under the deck outside the kitchen door. I hope not though.

Hiked Taughannock yesterday. Easy two-mile hike to the falls and back. Spent a little time at the overlook before heading down. Weather was beautiful yesterday.

I mentioned I'd lost my St Johns Riverkeeper hat, so we stopped into the Cornell shop at the Ithaca Commons. I mentioned to the woman checking me out that my mother's brother, Henry, was enrolled at Cornell, but left school early during WW II to join the Army Air Corps and died in a training accident. (Part of his plane fell off.) She gave me a 20% discount, which was unexpected and very kind.

I really don't understand what's going on in our country. I think I get the dynamics, but it still feels unreal to me. It's bad enough with the climate crisis and all the other environmental and resource challenges we're facing, but this just seems like the worst. But, just gotta keep breathing. "Tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide will bring?"

Anyway, nice marmot...

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:58 Tuesday, 2 July 2024

She's not talking me off the ledge this morning.

Ironic that we've lost the Republic during the same week that we declared our independence from kings.

Like climate change, the fire that has engulfed spaceship earth and now threatens the life support system, I fail to understand why we are just taking this lying down.

Ron DeSantis routinely fired democratically elected state attorneys when he's unhappy with them. Florida's Supreme Court has said he has the authority to do so.

The only way I see out of this is for Trump to be defeated in November, and a Democratic majority elected to both houses of congress.

The Supreme Court must be reformed. Term limits. Add two or more additional seats. Rules for how vacancies are filled.

Of course, that would be litigated before the Supreme Court, so who knows what they'd do. Probably find it unconstitutional.

America has fundamentally, and possibly irrevocably, changed.

Not just because of Donald J. Trump, he was the ideal instrument, but because of a sustained effort by a fascistic element of America that loathes democracy.

They've succeeded in overturning the Constitution.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:21 Tuesday, 2 July 2024

"Everyone involved in that crime could be prosecuted."

Could be prosecuted.

Who does the Justice Department work for? Whose "official" acts are unreviewable by the Justice Department? Any prosecution could be delayed, forestalled, ended, just not brought, by a "loyal" Attorney General.

And if he was insufficiently loyal?

"You're fired."

We've lost the republic.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:12 Tuesday, 2 July 2024

With regard to the "Seal Team Six scenario"...

“If the secretary of defense does it, and whether it’s successful or not, everyone involved in that crime could be prosecuted save for one person — the person who ordered it,” Becker said.

That is his opinion. It won't be resolved until a court weighs the facts of the case. The President of the United States is the Commander in Chief of the United States Military. The armed forces of the United States are a part of the executive branch of government. The members of the military are sworn to obey the "lawful orders" of the president and the officers appointed over them.

The Supreme Court has said that the law does not apply to the president in the conduct of his official duties, and that is supposedly somehow enshrined in the Constitution, which the members of the military swear an oath to uphold.

The president himself cannot perform the missions and tasks of the military, that's why he has a military. He orders them to carry out those missions and tasks. Posse Commitatus Act? Literally no longer applies to the only person with the power to violate it.

Add to this that this president, or any future president, can fire defense secretaries and combatant commanders until he finds one who will obey his orders. And he won't have to go far to do so

Add to this the legal jeopardy officers and enlisted members of the military place themselves in when refusing to obey an order, the "lawfulness" of which is now utterly in question.

This is a disastrous decision in every dimension. Utterly incomprehensible. A power manufactured out of whole cloth to facilitate creating an autocracy in the United States of America, by unelected, unaccountable demagogues.

This should keep everyone up at night.

It did me.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:38 Tuesday, 2 July 2024

I don't recognize my country anymore. It has let me down before, but I believed in the institutions. I never thought the Supreme Court would weasel its way to making a president into a king. There is no way this decision does anything but promote more turmoil and bad faith.

Perhaps Biden should exercise his newly granted authority in creative, albeit "official," ways.

I never liked the "Seal Team Six" scenario. Service members are only bound by oath to obey "lawful orders." This raises the very serious, very legitimate question of just exactly what a "lawful order" is today.

I never imagined the Supreme Court as chaos agents. But if your agenda is to overthrow democracy, I guess it makes sense.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 18:13 Monday, 1 July 2024

We arrived at our VRBO rental yesterday afternoon. We took a little detour out of our way to Binghamton to tour the Phelps Mansion Museum. It was well worth the extra effort. There used to be a row of mansions on that street, but Binghamton never had the kind of economy that supported the degree of wealth that could support the maintenance and upkeep of large, elaborate homes.

This one survived because a women's group bought it as a clubhouse, and largely maintained it as constructed for a century. They did install some modern plumbing and a "modern" kitchen, and added an addition with a ballroom, but the interior details remain as the house was constructed in 1870.

They did make one sad mistake. In 1940, they discovered the rooftop cistern was leaking into the third floor, and they had the entire third floor removed. Since then, the museum has added a facade that recreates the exterior appearance of the third floor.

It's a tragic story, Mr. Phelps had a run of bad luck with regard to spouses and children dying. It's possible that the house may have contributed in some fashion with toxic materials. Asbestos, for instance, was used to add a sheen to wallpaper at the time.

I didn't bring a camera in with me, and made do with my phone. My cameras were all packed up in the car. I'm not thrilled with what I got, but I'll post the least bad ones on Flickr.

Mitzi loves the rental. I'm ambivalent. We can't park immediately adjacent to the house, so unloading the car involved carrying a couple of large, somewhat heavy plastic boxes down a stone paver path with steps. I discovered that it was easier to walk on the gently sloping grass instead of the pavers.

We are surrounded by trees. There is a fairly open area of sky, so I may get some star trails. But no shots of the Milky Way arcing above the horizon. There's a fairly wide stream flowing next to the property, and there are a couple of Adirondack chairs down there, overlooking it.

A lesson we have repeatedly failed to learn is that we should bring some of our own cookware, knives for instance. We're going to create a small box of essentials. I lack an 8" skillet here, so I can't make my usual breakfast, which I was looking forward to after a week of eating breakfast at restaurants and hotels.

The house is comfortable with large windows overlooking the yard and the trees. There is some view of the stream, though nothing that would make a photo.

I'm trying to decompress after more than a week of driving, visiting, sleeping and not-sleeping in hotels. Mitzi is planning, planning, planning and asking for my input when I just want to be still. At home, I'm usually up for more than an hour before she is, and I have that time to kind of get my day oriented. Here I'm trying to remain polite and composed.

The idea is to relax, but I'm just experiencing more stress. She's excited, I'm a little disappointed.

One good thing is that this is the first place we've stayed at in the region that has genuinely high-speed internet. I'm surprised, but they actually have fiber up here. Perhaps it's the proximity to Cornell, we're just up the road from Ithaca.

The weather has kind of turned on us. It's supposed to clear up in a couple of hours, and it is looking brighter out there, but it's been pretty cloudy since we arrived. Can't shoot stars through clouds.

We'll head out later and do the Taughannock Falls trail. It's an easy hike with a nice view of the falls. That should help clear my head a bit.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:55 Monday, 1 July 2024

Too much media. Everyone knows more than anyone else. Pay little attention to it. Focus on essentials. Breathe.

Focus on this moment. What's "your best," in this moment?

Spent yesterday with Mom. Spoke to all of my siblings. All the local ones came by. Had pizza and strawberry-rhubarb pie. Spoke to my son and my youngest daughter. Did more genealogy with Mom with the screen from the computer projected on the TV.

Mom needed a new Apple Watch. In case she falls. Got her a refurb from the veterans' store. Still pricey. Forgot to do the trade-in application. My brother can do that and use the credit.

Too much media. Breathe. Focus.

Too many pundits.

Focus.

Breathe.

One day at a time. One moment at a time.

Packing up the hotel room. Mitzi's in the pool. Say goodbye to Mom around 9:00. Three hours in the car to Trumansburg.

Fifty straight days of Expert in Quartiles. Never get all the words, but all the "quartiles," every time. It's the little things.

Seem to be missing my St Johns Riverkeeper ball cap. I liked that hat. Maybe in the car?

Read the Washington Post. Too much media.

All our infrastructure was built for a climate that does not exist anymore. This will gradually become brutally clear. A price will be paid for decades of denial and delay.

No one is saying Trump should drop out of the race. Why?

Too much media.

Focus.

Breathe.

Finish packing.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:36 Sunday, 30 June 2024

I brought along the little Olympus Stylus 1s to Port Ewen. This is shot from my sister-in-law's condo across the Hudson to the eastern bank of the Hudson. The train is headed up from Poughkeepsie to Rhinebeck. My daughter Caitie took that train a couple of years ago when we were staying in Kingston for a week.

Mitzi's key fob has gone dead. I did a little homework while she was calling a Toyota dealer. I have the manuals on my computer. While she was talking I popped my fob open with my Swiss Army knife and showed her I could replace the battery with no trouble. It's a CR-2450, so we'll stop at Walmart before we get to Mom's and pick up a two-pack, and I'll replace both of them.

My brother has asked me to not install the bidet. He wants to make sure they're permitted, and if they are, he says the maintenance staff will install it. That way if there are any issues, they'll resolve them.

Sounds good to me!

The news is not great on the climate front with the reversal of the Chevron decision. So much for "precedent," and "settled law." This is just a part of the right-wing conservative agenda, much of which is outlined in chilling detail in Project 2025.

I don't wish to be apocalyptic, but we're in a lot of trouble. This isn't a singular struggle, but part of a continuum of conflict that waxes and wanes through history. We're confronting very serious threats on multiple fronts, and the political is perhaps the most consequential, because that affects what resources we can bring to bear on the others.

People tire of politics, and I think that's intentional by politicians. But we have to find the wherewithal to engage in the process, to talk to one another about it, to work hard and participate. To do otherwise is to surrender our agency in affecting the course of history, determining our future. It does matter. Saying your vote doesn't count is an expression of fear, originates in fear. It's not reality.

We must believe in democracy, have faith in our ability to shape our destiny.

It's not time to give up, it's time to get up. The hour is late, but it's not too late. Talk to your friends, post on your blog, if you're on social media, well, you shouldn't be. But if you are, don't post from fear. Summon courage, channel it. We're all in this together, even the folks we oppose; but none of the things we value will endure if we surrender to fear.

You're in this fight whether you want to be or not. So stand up and fight, or you'll be letting fear win.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 10:21 Saturday, 29 June 2024

"Faith" is kind of a loaded word. I find it's too often conflated with "religion." While faith is a necessary part of any religious practice, it's not strictly a religious concept, or irrevocably bound with any concept of a higher deity.

To me, faith is a radical acceptance of reality as it exists, or as we perceive it. Perception can change, hopefully, reality is fixed. Fear is a radical rejection of reality, or our perception of it.

I don't know if it's true, but I've read that, "The way of the warrior is to say, 'Yes!' to it all!" is a Bushido saying. And I believe that love is "faith in action," (the first derivative of faith) and courage is "love in action" (the second derivative).

If we take "nothingness" as the ultimate ground of being, existence is the negation of nothingness. An affirmative act. An act of faith. But it exists in tension with nothingness, and that tension is experienced as fear. Faith exists in tension with fear, it's the yin and yang of existence. This is the "x"-plane, a one-dimensional plane where time and action create love and courage, anger and hate. (First and second derivatives of fear.)

Consciousness apprehends existence with some mix of faith and fear. It's possible to embrace faith while still experiencing fear. It's almost impossible not to. It's in the choice of action that the difference is revealed.

We are in a world of shit.

There are a lot of people who are afraid right now, with good reason to be.

People calling for Joe Biden to step aside are acting out of fear, and likely many other emotions and motivations. Others are simply taking this opportunity to criticize any or all aspects of our political system, as if that expenditure of time, thought and energy will make any positive difference.

I've been reading many things after the debate. One thing I thought was clear, to anyone who isn't mired in anger and hatred, is that Donald Trump is the personification of anger and hatred. HIs appeal is to those who live in that part of the plane. This is the region that causes "good" people to do horrible things.

David Frum wrote something I found compelling:

Ferocious controversy will probably now erupt over Biden’s leadership of the Democratic Party. We’ll hear all kinds of plans to swap him out somehow. Maybe those plans will be workable, but probably not. Through the uproar, it will be important to keep in mind that this election is not about Biden. It’s about you and your commitments and your values. Biden is just the instrument. Like any instrument, he’s imperfect. But better an imperfect instrument than a would-be autocrat who demands a cult of personality.

We wish to believe, with some justification I think, that most people are fundamentally good. "Fundamentally" being the operative word. That their apprehension of existence isn't formed out of fear. They believe in a better future, in compassion, they experience empathy. I think the contrast between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is clear to those people. We must get them to the polls.

What happens in the next days and weeks will be decided by faith and fear, love and anger, courage and hate. How that plays out cannot be predicted, except to say that it seldom works out well when we act out of fear. That's Trump's home turf, his game.

Keep the faith. Work hard. Believe in one another. This is a fight we can win. That we must win. And it won't end after Election Day. The battles ahead are important ones and courage will be required. We must call upon it within ourselves.

It's all up to us, not Joe Biden.

Us.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:25 Saturday, 29 June 2024

Every place we've slept since we left has had a loud AC system. They've either woken me throughout the night, or made it harder to fall asleep. Mitzi insisted I get earplugs yesterday. I didn't think they'd stay in my ears, let alone do anything.

Well, I was wrong. She had to shake me this morning to turn off the alarm on my iPhone!

I feel much better.

We went down to Port Ewen yesterday, near Kingston and not far from Woodstock, where Dave Winer lives. We had lunch and visited with Mitzi's sister, who'd stayed with us for two months back in February and March while her pelvis healed. She's doing well and making plans to relocate eventually to California to be near her brother.

Today it's raining, the first day it hasn't been beautiful since we crossed over from Pennsylvania. We're going to head over to Mom's later and I'm going to be doing some light plumbing, installing a bidet my sister bought to help make life easier for Mom with her Parkinson's. Wish me luck. (I'll need it.)

Tomorrow we'll swing by Mom's to say goodbye and then head on to Trumansburg where we'll have a couple of weeks in the woods beside a creek. I'm looking forward to it. In Florida, I seldom have occasion to have this much social interaction and it's been a bit fatiguing, and I'm looking forward to just doing nothing for a day or so. Then a lot of hiking and sightseeing.

The beat goes on...

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:14 Saturday, 29 June 2024

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:57 Friday, 28 June 2024

Things looked pretty grim in December, 1941. They looked pretty grim in July, 1861.

They looked pretty grim last night.

But in both of the preceding cases, the fundamentals were strong and they ultimately decided the contest. The fundamentals are still strong.

Alexandra Petri captured much of my emotional reaction to the shit-show we witnessed last night. But Heather Cox walked me back from the ledge.

The stakes are as high as they were in 1861 and 1941. My Dad passed away 10 years ago tomorrow, though he passed in his sleep so it might have been 10 years ago tonight. For most of his later life his personal motto was "Keep the faith."

I hear his voice today.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:47 Friday, 28 June 2024

At dinner last night, I asked my brother about the chicken house. He said I was confusing that with the milk shed. We had the chicken house constructed. We had the milk shed moved from the natural spring where it formerly held the milk cans going to the dairy and kept them out of the sun. We used it as a wood shed.

Nobody is quite clear on when the garage, mud room and front porch were constructed.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:46 Thursday, 27 June 2024

Last night was our third night in a hotel and we have three more to go. I'm ready for it to be over now. Both places we've stayed at have very loud ac units, that rumble. The beds are on enclosed platforms that seem to form a resonance chamber, and so the low frequency rumble is amplified as you're lying in bed. And for some reason, my tinnitus has decided to amp up the volume. Not sleeping well and feeling cranky.

Tonight is the shit-show everyone's been (not) waiting for. Yes, Biden's old, and in an ideal world he wouldn't be the candidate. But we live in an absurd world, so absurdities are the rule of the day.

In the blogosphere, there's angst about AI being trained on the "open web." It's only "open" if you have permission I guess. And, I must say, like Captain Louis Renault, "I'm shocked" that tech companies were behaving "badly." I mean, really? All these visionary, well-informed, tuned-in, savvy web "influencers" didn't see this coming? El-oh-el!

We were able to charge the RAV4 at both of the hotels we've stayed at, though we missed seeing the chargers the first night at the first hotel. When we did notice them, they were inoperative. The first person we spoke to at the desk appeared clueless, but we got someone who knew what the story was and it turns out that the chargers trip a breaker in the hotel. They reset the breaker and we were able to charge the car. For free.

This Hilton Garden Inn we're at now has chargers, but they're on a different network, so another app and more surveillance. Also, not free. But we charged anyway, because it's better for the world.

Mom continues her slow decline, but her spirits are good. She's growing more hard of hearing too. We went out with my brother to an outdoor hamburger stand last night for dinner. They go there once a week. It was a real piece of Americana. I managed to avoid ordering any ice cream.

Today we'll spend with Mom, and tomorrow we'll head down the Hudson to Port Ewen to visit Mitzi's sister for lunch. She's the one who spent a couple of months with us while her broken pelvis healed. Saturday will be the 10th anniversary of Dad's death, so we'll spend that here with family.

Sunday we're on the road for Trumansburg and hopefully, better accommodations.

The shot above is from the side of the road in the area where I grew up. It's the kind of thing you can take for granted as an adolescent when you're looking at it every day. As an old man, it's one of the most beautiful sights in the world. I keep telling Mitzi we have to come up here in the winter so I can get over my infatuation with the place. I do recall that it can get cloudy in October and remain overcast through April, or seem like it anyway. We're always up here in the summer.

Anyway, the beat goes on.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:25 Thursday, 27 June 2024

This is where I "grew up," or, at least the years between 6th and 12th grade. My parents built this place on two acres of land they bought from my grandfather in 1968, so it'll be 60 years old in four years. That sounds like a long time.

The front porch, mud room on the side and garage were all added later. We had wooden 2x10 steps up to the front door and back door for much of my time there.

It's odd, but I can't recall if any of the additions took place while I lived there. They were all added by my parents, because I recall going through the garage attic where much of my "stuff" was moved at some point, either by my parents or my brothers.

The place has a full basement where I used to pound out CQ on 80 meters CW as WN2FEB, I can still recall the smell of mildew and ozone, and the chill on my shoulders.

Not long after we moved in, we discovered the basement flooded. They installed a sump pump to manage that. Drinking water comes from a well, and it was very hard and had a distinct odor. I recall when we vacationed at Gramma's from Michigan, I didn't like the water because it "smelled." Turns out, you get used to it, but everything white eventually turns orange.

The trees in the left side of the frame were planted as saplings. They originally outlined our "picnic" area where we had our picnic table. Nearly everyone had a picnic table outside in those days. We'd often eat outside, bugs be damned.

Later it became the location of a used above-ground pool my dad bought and had set up. Back behind the garage was the chicken house, which we bought and had moved from wherever they bought it from. We had a few dozen chickens and sold eggs for a while. One of my chores in the winter was to trudge out through the snow to the chicken house to collect the eggs. As cold as it might be outside, the chickens kept the chicken house pretty warm.

One of my other chores was to also shovel all the chicken shit out into a wheelbarrow, and then spread it on the garden.

Speaking of shoveling, I also had to shovel snow out of the driveway so Dad could go to work. We used what was called a "grain shovel." It had a huge blade with a flat front edge and scooped sides. Mom would melt paraffin on it so the wet snow wouldn't stick as much.

Anyway, "Good times," as they say.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:49 Wednesday, 26 June 2024

Had a nice morning hike to the base of the falls. It's not a long hike, but it's pretty steep. Had the place all to ourselves for a little while.

Seems like they've recently made some improvements at the park, the restrooms were among the best I've ever seen anywhere.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 13:20 Tuesday, 25 June 2024

Made it to New York safely yesterday. Pretty for much of the drive, it was cloudy over northern Pennsylvania and the early part of southern New York, with strong, gusty winds.

It cleared up quickly as we headed north. We took State Road 26 from Whitney Point north to 46 then on to Verona. It was a very lovely drive, with very little traffic.

It's a welcome part of each of these trips, seeing the green hills, the farms, rivers and lakes and the old houses. We even saw a doe standing in a field. It's remarkable what a little elevation will do to lift your spirits.

Six hours in the car, with moderate traffic and little construction. I-83 and 81 are both in relatively decent shape. Encountered only one case of insanity, where an individual was weaving in and out of traffic and cut us off and had to brake because he couldn't get around the car in front of him, which made me brake hard to avoid rear-ending him. Happened right in front of a trooper parked in the median, but he didn't pursue.

Had dinner with my brother last night at a restaurant at Turning Stone Casino. Food was unremarkable, but we came for the company. Today we're going to visit my father's grave, hike a bit around Chittenango Falls, visit the Canal Town Museum in Canastota, NY which is where I lived for grades 6-12. Tonight we'll get together with one of my old high school classmates, and back on the road tomorrow out to Clifton Park near Albany to see Mom and a few of my siblings.

We're there through Sunday, when we'll head to Trumansburg for a two-week stay in a small place by creek.

It's wonderful to get away from the heat and the insanity of Florida.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:15 Tuesday, 25 June 2024

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 13:14 Sunday, 23 June 2024

Spent time yesterday as tourists before it got super-hot today. Mitzi's daughter took some time off and accompanied us as we visited some of the memorials we didn't visit last time. We were fortunate that the crowds that were present when we were here two weeks ago were absent yesterday.

I wanted to be sure to visit the Lincoln Memorial, having just finished The Demon of Unrest and Union. I'm glad we did. The memorial is undergoing a great deal of renovation, presumably in preparation for the nation's sesquicentennial in 2026. But it's still open, just not as picturesque. I'll post some pics at Flickr later.

Probably because I'm an old man now, I felt very moved as I read the words of Lincoln's second inaugural address. The last time I visited this monument was more than 20 years ago, and I've learned so much since then. I was also affected by watching the other tourists lining up to have their pictures taken in front of Lincoln's statue.

From there, we visited the Martin Luther King Memorial. Also a remarkable experience. It's interesting that King's body is facing the Jefferson Memorial, though his gaze does not. King's memorial falls between Jefferson's and Lincoln's and has something to say about the promise of freedom and equality, and the unfinished work of realizing that promise.

Walking up the tidal basin, past the cherry trees, we went to the FDR memorial and lingered there for a while. I took the opportunity to try some long-exposure shots with the Oly XZ-2, which has a built-in 3-stop ND filter. There's some motion blur as the camera's IBIS isn't quite able to compensate for a hot, tired old man's unsteady grip.

Sherri, Mitzi's daughter, and I talked a bit about how remarkable it was that at two crucial moments for our nation, leaders emerged who seemed uniquely fit to meet that moment, and we wondered where that leader was today. I also wondered how it happened that each was succeeded by a man who was chose on the basis of a political calculation of compromise.

I have to say that as cynical as I can be about partisan politics, I am profoundly affected by the ideals and sacrifices memorialized in our capital city.

(And may I just say that the words "capital" and "capitol" are utterly confusing in usage.)

The beat goes on...

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 10:44 Saturday, 22 June 2024

<img src=“https://nice-marmot.net/Archives/2024/Images/Image 1.JPG” alt=““Show your stripes” graphic indicating the rising temperature annually due to antrhopogenic climate change”>

We made it to DC safely. A couple of interesting/scary moments. People are insane. Though for the most part, traffic was rather light and we encountered only a small amount of construction. Right at twelve hours door to door.

Apple Maps let me down on finding a rest area in North Carolina just over the border from South Carolina. There were two entries indicated on the map when I searched for rest stops, one indicated being closed, the other was a bit north on the map and indicated it was on I-95 North. Well, suffice to say, there is only one and it is closed.

Mitzi had been driving for a while and it's our custom to pull over at a rest area, stretch our legs and eat lunch before switching drivers. I relied on Apple Maps and was disappointed. We ended up eating standing up next to the car in the shade of a tree by the side of a road off one of the other exits.

It's hot here. Unsurprising.

Supposedly, one of the best things we can do about climate change is "talk about it." I do that a fair amount here, perhaps too much.

I get frustrated by "attribution" reports. That climate change has made a certain weather event X-percent "more likely."

It's not "more likely," because there is no "likely" climate that exists anymore, and hasn't for some time. But the cumulative effects are now being felt with regularity.

The climate system that produces the weather we experience today is unprecedented in earth's history. Not just human history, the history of the planet.

All of the weather we are experiencing is due to this new reality. It's not "more likely," it just is. It's not going to revert to some "normal" state.

Attribution analyses were kind of a response to denialism, but I think reality is a sufficient response to denialism and these attribution analyses seem misleading to me with these weasel words, "more likely." Likely compared to what? A climate that doesn't exist anymore?

The reality is that there is more energy in the climate system. Energy is the capacity to do work. Weather events will do "more work," be "more extreme" (Although even that's misleading because they're by no means "extreme" in the context of our present climate system.)

We have a civilization with a physical and economic infrastructure built for a climate that no longer exists and that we cannot return to. We can stop making it worse, and we must. But the sooner we wake up and accept the new reality and what brought it about, the sooner we can begin making the kinds of changes that will reduce suffering.

Anyway...

The beat goes on.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 11:01 Friday, 21 June 2024

We'll be underway in just over an hour. I'll shut down the iMac and be posting from the 14" MBP for the next month or so.

Packing for a trip like this remains a challenge, mostly with regard to camera gear because I have so much to choose from, and inevitably I'll wish I had something at some point while we're away.

I'm bringing the OM-1 and the E-M1X as the only two interchangeable lens cameras. For lenses, the 12-45mm/f4 as a small walkabout and the 12-100/f4 as a large walkabout. The 40-150/f2.8 for possible birds, bugs and astro, and the 100-400mm for birds (and the moon). Primes include the 8mm/f1.8 fisheye for star trails, Milky Way and wide-angle interior shots using in-camera de-fishing; and the 17mm/f1.2 for possible aurora. I'll also have the MC14 teleconverter, though I'm just now thinking I should add the MC20. Hmmmm...

I have the Cotton Carrier G3 for the big zooms, and I'll use a sling with the 12-45 and the FE.

I went a little nuts on compact cameras. Into a small bag I have stuffed an XZ-1, XZ-2, Stylus 1s, TG6 and LX7. Three of those will charge in-camera, the other two (LX7 and Stylus 1s) required bringing along a charger, alas. It was mostly a case of I couldn't make up my mind, so I brought all of them. Left behind are the XZ-10, Fujufilm XQ1 and Pentax MX1.

A few filters, a flash, a couple of tripods, well, four tripods including the little ones, and an assortment of USB-C, micro USB and Oly proprietary USB cords.

I remembered this morning that I'm going to want to wear a light, long-sleeved shirt today. Driving north in the afternoon will have the sun beating on my left arm and it gets quite uncomfortable. I'm happy I remembered that.

The car is nearly all packed, just the perishables we're taking along and a few items I've just recalled.

I wish I enjoyed travel more. That is, I wish I enjoyed getting ready to travel more. In the days leading up to a trip, I'm just a mess. I feel like I can't start anything because there's no time to finish it before I have to leave, whether that's for a weekend or a month. There's just this overall feeling of dread. Once I'm on the road or at our destination, I'm fine. But I really struggle in the days before departure.

We're visiting friends and family for the first week before we arrive at the Finger Lakes. Because the prices have spiked so much for rentals, we're not spending the whole time with a view of the lake. The first two weeks are at a rural home with a creek running alongside it. I'd hoped for clear horizons, but it looks surrounded with trees. The last week is in a small cottage on Seneca Lake, which should be charming but I'm definitely going to miss the views we had from the places with more elevation. Florida is claustrophobic, and elevation is a cure for that. I'll have views driving around and hiking, but it was always just so refreshing to wake up in the morning overlooking a lake. Expansive. Like the world isn't closing in.

But, despite our relative wealth and privilege, those sorts of things are increasingly exclusively available to the more wealthy and more privileged. I suppose we could have rented a place with a view for a shorter period. Maybe that's the answer if we ever do something like this again.

And, of course, we're heading up north to escape the Florida heat (and insanity).

It's cooler in Florida as I write than it is in New York.

So it goes. Next stop, DC. Wish us safe travels.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 05:03 Thursday, 20 June 2024

We're headed up to New York beginning tomorrow, with a weekend stop in DC. I should have been making preps yesterday, but I fell down a rabbit-hole at the National Archives, reading the deck logs of ships in the Pacific near the surrender of Japan. It was fascinating and disappointing and a story for another time.

I saved a story in Apple News, my apologies if you can't follow the link. It resonates with my own struggle with anxiety bordering on depression. But...

There is never going to be a point when it’s too late to be a good planetary roommate, he insists. “It’s late. It’s very late, and it’s very tragic that it’s gotten to this point, but it’s not too late because it’s not a binary on or off thing. It’s like every gallon, every litre of petrol that gets burned, every aeroplane that flies, every cow that is raised and slaughtered for meat makes it a little bit worse.”

I welcome the possibility of being surprised, too. Tom Murphy has been playing with some numbers (He "does the math."), and they reveal some interesting things.

I would like to read or hear more from demographers about the UN's projections and what seems to be happening with fertility rates around the world.

What Tom writes seems to at least suggest the possibility of a controlled descent. I've read various opinions on what earth's "carrying capacity" is, and the numbers I've seen range between 1 and 3 billion. I have no idea how accurate those may be, and I suppose they depend on what level "degradation" of the "natural" environment is desirable. For what it's worth, there is no "natural environment" left on earth, in the strictest sense. I think we're looking for a sustainable level of species diversity versus an ongoing mass extinction event, as a minimum.

The decrease in fertility rates allows for a significant decline in the world's population that doesn't require famine, disease and war to achieve it. Those things will still occur, of course, but perhaps not on a scale that might include a nuclear exchange and wholesale slaughter on global scale.

Inequity will still be the defining characteristic, with those of us in the global north likely suffering the least. It may prompt a serious reexamination of our way of life, though.

May.

It should certainly illustrate the genuine "limits to growth," that should inform how we choose to organize our economic activity and what a sustainable, reasonable quality of life might be. Consumption shouldn't be the primary goal of living a "good life."

There's still plenty to despair though. I just finished Union: The Struggle to Forge the Story of United States Nationhood, by Colin Woodard. It's a fascinating book, and a good companion volume to The Demon of Unrest, by Erik Larson, or Robert E. Lee and Me, by Ty Seidule.

The Civil War was fought to end slavery and preserve the union. It was not fought to end white supremacy. If slavery is America's "original sin," the fruit we were deceived into biting was the myth of white supremacy. I've had to think about this a bit, and I'm not certain I've got it right, but in the "chicken or the egg" matter of racism and white supremacy, I think white supremacy came first.

And white supremacy is still with us, though I don't understand why.

When I was on Twitter and Ta-Nehisi Coats was as well, I recall reading tweets from him that suggested the role of white supremacy/racism was to serve the psychological needs of poor white men. That, while they were still poor, they weren't at the bottom of the social hierarchy because they were still superior to other "races" and people. And I guess I still don't understand how someone grows up to need that. I'm certain it's passed along from parent to child, chiefly fathers to sons, but how much psychological or emotional utility does it actually have?

I know we're born with some sort of intrinsic sense of fairness and that we can experience unfairness with a negative emotional response. Poverty, being poor, is inherently unfair, though I suppose it can also be a learned experience as many people can truthfully say, "We didn't know we were poor," because there was no other or larger experience to compare it too.

And ambitious people, again, mostly men, can exploit this characteristic to serve their own ambition or agenda. But only in an environment of ignorance. White supremacy, or any form of bigotry, requires othering some group. Making them seem undesirable in some fashion, and that only works if the people they're making this appeal for bigotry to, don't know the "other." Because none of the undesirable characteristics are especially unique to any group being "othered." Because we're all people. So bigotry relies on ignorance and deception.

I don't know where I'm going with this. I just meant to say that Woodrow Wilson was a real racist and a genuinely weird dude too. I knew he segregated federal civil service because I visited his presidential library (unofficial, because it was before "official" presidential libraries) in Staunton, Virginia. The only thing I knew about Josephus Daniels, Wilson's Secretary of the Navy, and just one of the racists he surrounded himself with, was that he banned alcohol aboard navy ships. They never told us he was also a vehement racist and white supremacist (if that's not too redundant). Let's not name another ship after him.

In any event, white supremacy, and the ignorance it requires, is behind so much of the unfairness and inequity in the world, and will play a shameful role in how the great simplification plays out.

And we should be ashamed.

Now I've got to start packing.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:07 Wednesday, 19 June 2024

I hope all the dads and granddads out there had a pleasant day yesterday. My son and his wife and their three boys joined us at the water park here in our neighborhood. Their youngest, Jackson, is four now and is less shy around me and far more eager to play in the various water features than last year. The older boys did an excellent job looking after their little brother. Weather cooperated with broken clouds keeping the sun's intensity in check.

Out of fatigue more than interest, we watched Armageddon last night on (shudder) cable television. I'm pretty good at finding the mute button on the remote by feel, but the number of commercials was simply incomprehensible. By the end of the movie I realized why CW selected that title for its Father's Day offering. A horrible movie, but in an almost camp, so-bad-it's-good sort of way, it was worth watching yesterday.

We're making preps for heading north, just in time for the heat wave. We just may have the timing right, where the worst of it will be moving south toward the mid-Atlantic as we're moving north. In the past, one of the most refreshing things about visiting upstate New York in June was that it was a good ten or fifteen degrees cooler than Florida. July could get hot, but it still tended to cool more in the evenings. But that was in the "old" climate. Who knows what to expect these days?

Was chatting with a friend last week about Governor DeSantis and I referred to him as being stupid. My friend insisted he isn't stupid. I suppose he's correct. He clearly possesses some measure of intelligence. So perhaps I should use the term "fool," instead; because even people who aren't stupid can be fools, and DeSantis is a fool.

An ambitious, reckless, irresponsible fool.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:05 Monday, 17 June 2024

Those "recurrence intervals" for extreme rainfall events?

The data set that established those intervals was a assembled from weather records in a climate that no longer exists.

I don't know how those can be "adjusted," "corrected" or "modified" to provide meaningful guidance in a climate that has changed, is changing and will continue to change for centuries.

"Buckle up, Dorothy, because Kansas is about to go bye-bye."

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:06 Sunday, 16 June 2024