Planting is Over and Some Men

Today was windy!  We had planned to do hill repeats up the trail behind the neighborhood, but the air was yellow.  Really yellow from pollen.  So, we decided to bail on it.  I'm not sure how bad pollen is for the lungs, but I think I would rather not find out.  Hopefully the wind advisory will be over tomorrow.

Yesterday we got the rest of the box woods in the ground.  That project is over, and I am very happy about that.  The two plants foreground are where the giant juniper was.  If we had not take out the root ball and many of the roots, we could not have planted there.  So, the drudgery was worth it.  In 10 or so years, the short ones will be the same height as the older plants.

Rocks were repurposed.  We have a decorative rock placement.  There used to be a border at the base of the juniper, but there was no need for it any more.

This is in our neighbor's yard.  He has a beautiful display in spring, no effort on our part.

Who's current on the Harrison Butker controversy?  He's a kicker for the Chiefs.  One of his team mates is Taylor Swift's boyfriend.  Anyway he spoke at a graduation ceremony, during which he said that a woman's only vocation should be taking care of her husband and having babies.  The entire twenty minutes can be seen here on youtube.  There is a 80 second clip here, which is about all I could stand.  Anyway, he's been dragged fairly thoroughly and today he put out an explainer - to say what he really meant. 

Isn't that better?

Bitching and Moaning

This an agility course we saw the other day riding the trail.  Most of the dogs were hopeless, but this one was pretty good.  Note the 360 he does, all of the dogs were very excited to be there.

Now I will tell you a story about Xfinity, who is our cable and internet provider.  One hour of my precious life was consumed today by talking to them.  Before we left for Tucson, I called Xfinity and complained about the price of service, and they downgraded my internet speed from 1000 to 800 whatever unit of speed they use and fewer cable channels.  When I came back from the vacation service hold, things were as they were before I made the service changes.  So I called today, asked what's up.  They offered me a "promotion."  Good for one year.  Currently I'm paying $216 a month for cable and internet.  The new package would be $195 a month or so, for one year.  Then it goes up to $230.  So, unless I remember to call them and get a new promotion, I'd be paying more for lower levels of service.  Sound like a deal, eh? So I cancelled cable.  Just shut it off.  Why can't Xfinity just sell you a package of some number of channels and leave it alone.  Why must everything be a promotion?  I think this predatory behavior is exacerbating the departure from cable to streaming services.  They're not helping their cause.  Internet only will be $80 a month, with unlimited data.  It's unfortunate TDS could not come in to this neighbor hood with fiber, it would have been cheaper and with faster uploads.

In Windows 10, it is simple to mirror your PC screen on to your TV.  In Windows 11, it is not.  In fact, it's all over the internet that it doesn't work in 11.  I read one tutorial that says to use an HDMI cable.  Really?  A cable?  This is just crap.  I am not amused.  I'm wondering if I went to a PC place if they could wipe my recently purchased laptop and put Windows 10 on it.  As of yet, I can not see one reason to upgrade.  Fight it off for as long as you can.  Update to post:   I found a youtube that tells you how to do this, so I guess we should never believe the stuff in Microsoft forums.

It's spring in Spokane, the Ponderosa pines are producing large quantities of pollen.  Pollen is drifting on the roads.  When the wind gusts, large yellow clouds come out of the trees across the cul de sac.  It's no wonder my eyes are itching.

Here is a lilac that is growing down the hill from us. 

Well, I downloaded Chrome, which is supposed to perform the laptop screen cast to the TV,  and I am here to report that it does not work, either.  Guess I'll go get that HDMI cord out.  I think I miss the days of over the air TV.

The Coronal Mass Ejection

 This is the weather alert we got last night.  It was fairly alarming.

The losses of high and low frequencies would be bad.  Eric Feigl-Ding did an excellent summation of what could happen, which you can read here.  One of the things he mentioned, was that science was concerned about another Carrington event.  From Wikipedia we learn the following.

The Carrington Event was the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history, peaking from 1–2 September 1859 during solar cycle 10. It created strong auroral displays that were reported globally^[1] and caused sparking and even fires in multiple telegraph stations. The geomagnetic storm was most likely the result of a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the Sun colliding with Earth's magnetosphere.^[2]

What was really cool was that the storm was putting electricity into the wires of the telegraph service.  I thought this was so interesting.

 Because of the geomagnetically induced current from the electromagnetic field, telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed, in some cases giving their operators electric shocks.^[22] Telegraph pylons threw sparks.^[23] Some operators were able to continue to send and receive messages despite having disconnected their power supplies.^[24][25] The following conversation occurred between two operators of the American telegraph line between Boston, Massachusetts, and Portland, Maine, on the night of 2 September 1859 and reported in the Boston Evening Traveler:

Boston operator (to Portland operator): "Please cut off your battery [power source] entirely for fifteen minutes."

Portland operator: "Will do so. It is now disconnected."

Boston: "Mine is disconnected, and we are working with the auroral current. How do you receive my writing?"

Portland: "Better than with our batteries on. – Current comes and goes gradually."

Boston: "My current is very strong at times, and we can work better without the batteries, as the aurora seems to neutralize and augment our batteries alternately, making current too strong at times for our relay magnets. Suppose we work without batteries while we are affected by this trouble."

Portland: "Very well. Shall I go ahead with business?"

Boston: "Yes. Go ahead."

We, of course, saw nothing, because every house in this neighborhood has a light on a post, and the light pollution is immense.  People in Arizona saw it, which is really surprising.  Here is a photo I swiped off Facebook.

So, that's my recording of the event, which doesn't happen very often.

First Ride and Tree Removal

We rode today!  First time.  The ride starts out on a downhill, which is in the trees, so it's always a little (or a lot) chilly, but today was not too bad.  I ended up carrying part of my wardrobe after it warmed up some.  After returning from the ride, we ate lunch and set out for REI.  Jim's bike saddle had to go, immediately.  He's out installing the new one, the seat posts Trek used are just garbage. They are very difficult to adjust.

The yellow flowers are out in force.  They like it up there.

Here is the always lovely and serene Nine Mile Lake.

Last night there was a slight sunset. 

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent removing a giant Juniper that was encroaching into the path that goes along side of the house.  It couldn't be cut back due to its growth pattern of the inside turning an ugly brown, while the outside was an attractive green.  It was also encroaching on the neighbor's yard.  He did the bulk of the work getting it out, since he has a big chain saw and a really big set of loppers.

First the tree must be limbed.

Then there is debris which must be picked up.  We ended up using our green can and those of three neighbors who had room in theirs.  That was extremely helpful.

 To get the tree out, one must expose the roots, then they can be cut.

The giant loppers were deployed to cut the roots.  It had a lot, and they were big. 

Here is Jim, rocking the tree.  It was still firmly attached to the ground.

Finally, it came out.  There is an irrigation line in the root ball.  Sometime in the past, the root ball assimilated it. 

So, this is what we have now.  The pink flags indicate the location of the ends of the sprinkler line.  We're going to have a sprinkler guy come out Sunday and put in a new section of hose, move the line closer to the edge of the bed, and put in emitters. 

We're putting in three more Boxwoods to go with the ones that are already on the path.  I like them, they're cold hardy, they grow, and I don't have to pick up after them, unlike the wretched Rose of Sharon which drops debris everywhere.

Other than this, I have not too much to say about anything.

Walking and Developers

Spring is late!  We had planned to ride today, the sun was out, but the air is still really cold.  I know, it's not really cold, but it was definitely out of my comfort zone.  Instead we went up the hill and did hill repeats on foot.  The elderly need all the weight bearing exercise they can get, so it was good.  Unfortunately, cycling does zippity doo-dah all for bone density.  Doesn't seem quite fair, does it?

The HOA had more thinning in the woods done.  This is what's left over, I guess the chipper/shredder could not make it up here.

The woods are way more open than they used to me.  I think I liked it better before.

This is the neighbors' yard.  They put a lot of time and effort in to their yard, and it shows.  They plant vegetables and herbs, but they have to be in tall pots so the marmots can't reach them.  It's always something with the wildlife.

The dog woods have been pretty this year.

We used to have a half way house for troubled teens who were too difficult for their parents to care for them, but not bad enough for incarceration.  Their facility was down the hill from our neighborhood. I last wrote about them here when they started a fire in the woods on a very windy day.  Plans have changed, and now their intent is to build a multi-unit facility with primary care doctors, a hospice, multi-level multi-family housing and what all I do not know.  Given the amount of land they own, it's not clear where it will all go.  Management has been in contact with the HOA on a limited basis, they have not been completely forthcoming about their plans.  It wasn't until this article was published that the full scope became clear.  You should be able to open this and read it once, then the paywall gets you.

Here is a map.  The area bordered by the solid black line with the diagonal lines is property owned by  them.  The area with the oval drawn around it has been a subject of discussion for about a year.  It really has no value, it's small, very difficult to get to, but it belongs to us.

This is what we saw the other day.  They're cutting in a road for more access and for the fire trucks.  They've cut the bank back for the road and encroached in to our property.  Permission should have been requested.

This belongs to them.  It shows how the bank has been cut to put in the road.

And then there is this.  It's part of a challenge course.  It's on our property.  It's also an attractive nuisance.  If someone is on this, falls off, breaks a leg, who gets sued?  The land owner, or the people who installed it?  We would like this gone, and have done for quite some time.

Developers - encroach first, ask forgiveness later.  It's aggravating.  They're also talking about trails through the woods.  One wonders, whose woods.

That's it for me.