Monday, September 13, 2021

A No Work Day

Yesterday morning I dumped an almost full 16 ounce glass of water on my laptop.  It survived.  In the process of mopping water off the screen with a cloth napkin that was not terribly absorbent, all of the dust from Tucson still remaining on the screen has become an impenetrable layer of something.  It makes it hard to see the screen when there is light on it.  Soon I will be forced to turn the thing off, which is always fraught because one of these days it won't come back on because it is old and fragile, and clean the screen with something.  I'm fairly shocked that it continued working.  I put a fan on it all day which may or may not have done any good, but it made me feel better.  

In the afternoon we drove out to the Spokane Valley Home Depot.  Spokane Valley is closer to Idaho, and it shows.  Way fewer people were wearing masks, and the agricultural vibe is strong.  Speaking of Idaho.  They are doing zippity doo-dah all about Covid mitigation.  No mask mandates, no push for vaccination, nothing, nada, niente.  The governor and AG are trying to figure out how to circumvent the vaccination mandates put in place by President Biden. Their hospitals are buckling under the strain of all of the people in ICU.  They don't have beds, ventilators or staff.  The federal government is sending people to help.  They are also exporting patients to Spokane.  Since the Spokane hospitals are now so full of their own unvaccinated and Idaho's, surgeries like removing brain tumors and knee/hip replacements are being deferred.  I have a serious issue with that.  Not that anyone cares what I think.  In Coeur d'Alene they are setting up on the fair grounds to have infusion centers for mono clonal antibodies for people who are still only mildly sick.  I don't know why they think the same people who would not get vaccinated are going to take a lab grown artificial protein that mimics a human antibody.  NYT did a piece on the problem, which you can read here.

This was last night.  I've had this lamp for years, it was always in a place where it didn't get used, and now it's out in the open.  We turn it on, we like the light and the way it shines through Jim's sailing trophy.  Jim's team won the Swiftsure race and set a course record in 1995; the next year Roy Disney came up and won with a new course record.


I have to to wash this window!  There were some pretty clouds, we need to be higher on the hill.

Today we did no work.  There was no weeding, hauling of rocks, none of that.  Instead we took the mountain bikes out to the Centennial trail.  From this website we learn "The Centennial Trail is a nearly 40-mile paved recreational trail for pedestrians and non-motorized vehicles. The trail stretches from Sontag Park in Nine Mile Falls, Washington to the Washington / Idaho state line. It continues another 24 miles beyond the Washington state border into Idaho as the North Idaho Centennial trail through Post Falls and into Coeur d'Alene."  Part of it is under construction and requires riding with traffic for the duration.  We did find places to park that will keep us off the road.  Given the hospital situation, I'm not willing to risk playing in traffic.

This is the view of the river close to where we parked.


Our trail head is called the Military Cemetery trail head.  This is the cemetery.  It was odd how many grave markers were for infants.  1955 - 1959 seem to have been bad years to be a baby.


The trail is under construction, and there is a detour posted for work on the trail as well as road work.  We drove up to see how grisly the detour would be; we are somewhat deterred.  Anyway, this is what we saw along the way.  I have no idea why this is here.


It's an old part of town, high on the bluff over looking the river.  Look at the size of the deciduous trees.  There will be much gathering of dead leaves.


Here we have the John Finch nurses' home, built in 1929.  From the website I can't tell if student nurses lived there, or if it's a retirement facility.  It's a good looking building with an excellent view.


I would guess this belonged to an original mover and shaker in Spokane from years back.  It's a pretty cool house.


Tomorrow we go to the DMV to get driver's licenses.  Once again I will have an ID photo that makes me look like the walking dead.  Can't wait.  At least they schedule appointments now, it used to be first come, first serve and the wait was long.


9 comments:

  1. Cool lamp! Beautiful country. politically dumb but you can just MYOB, right? Do not make eye contact. Find some old hippies and sailors to hang out with.

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  2. I think if a State does nothing about Pandemic Mitigation the Feds shouldn't send in help and other States should refuse their overspill of Covidiots and save Beds for their own people. We're pandering too much to these States and their higher populations of Covidiots. BTW: I live in AZ which has a Covidiot Gov. Dumbass Ducey, he is the reason we have poor compliance as he fights mitigation efforts and was behind that Fraudit also, all of which cost the AZ Taxpayers for his idiocy and Political Posturing to kiss the Ring of the Orange one. That is a cool lamp, loved the cool Architecture. I agree with Linda Sue, don't make Eye contact with the politically dumb and stay away from as many of them {more than six feet I'd suggest} which is what we do here. I'm glad we're in an Urban Metropolis, because AZ Small Towns are swarming with MAGAts and the City is much more progressive/moderate in their views and not so extreme to be Politicizing a Pandemic to make some Moronic Statement.

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  3. the resistance to the vaccine is unbelievably stupid, moronic. they don't trust the science of the vaccines but they trust science enough to go to the hospital when they get covid. they don't know what's in the vaccines? they don't know what's in the shit the doctors pump them full of either. it makes no sense. Idaho...we won't do anything thing to prevent people from getting infected but when our hospitals are overwhelmed we want the federal government to step in and help us even though we are trying to prevent the federal government from helping via vaccine mandate. the whole thing is totally political. Trump made resisting the vaccine equivalent to being a republican, it's now part of their identity. they can't backtrack without losing their identity as a republican. and they don't even understand that they are the ones dying.

    glad you are getting out and enjoying the area.

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  4. I love that view of the river. Glad you got the bikes out and hit the trail. Don't get me started on the anti-vaxers. Idiots one and all.

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  5. Pretty country side - very different from AZ.

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  6. That IS a great house. As for the vaccine resisters, I just can't comprehend what they're thinking. All this Covid paranoia is such a strange phenomenon.

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  7. We loved riding that trail when we visited the area. Love the lamp and Jim's trophy! Did not know he used to be a sailor. We took many different sailing lessons as adults (did not grow up boating) and owned a Catalina 30 for a few years. We weren't interested in racing but coastal cruising. Fun times!

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  8. You're exploring your new neighborhood. Very green and verdant. Did you used to camp in the area in your RV days?

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