Back in Spokane

Today we went back to Spokane via I5 to I90.  Traffic from Everett to Bellevue, where the turn for I90 is was bad, but not terrible.  Apparently there had been an accident which they had cleared, but the memory lingered on.  Here is traffic.  We were fortunate that we could do most of the route in the HOV lanes.  People still do not like to car pool.  Even with traffic, it was faster to take the non-scenic route.

 Here we are entering the Cascades again.  It's pretty out there. 

I'm not sure where we were when I took this, it was out in the great wide open of eastern Washington.  Tucson has dust devils, but only one at a time.  I have never seen three at once in the same area.  So that was pretty cool.  They're the vertical columns of dust.

Why, you may wonder, didn't we mail the EE savings bonds to the treasury.  This is why.  In 2022 our taxes made multiple round trips between Spokane and Cincinnati.  It took 38 days for them to arrive, IRS tried to hit us with a late fee, and the whole thing was the fault of the post office.  Last winter, we had our mail being forwarded to Tucson, to the park model.  In that time frame, an RMD check was marked undeliverable and returned to the people that manage our 401k accounts.  Also during that time frame, several bills were marked undeliverable and returned to sender.  Also, they quit forwarding our New Yorker magazines.  The last one we received was the front and back cover only, dated December 18, 2023.  After that, silence.  My faith in the USPS is nil.  So, it felt better to us to drive to the credit union and hand deliver them to a teller.  I would not want that much money floating around in the post office ether.  Turns out they were worth more than we thought they would be.

Anyway, it's done, it's over, and now when the last of us dies, the executor of our will, who is a friend, will not be bothered with fooling with the bonds.  I read up on it, it's no small feat to convert them after the people are gone.

I think we're done with Seattle.  I used to miss living there, but it has become too crowded, they're still putting up apartments with no new roads to support the development, and prices are crazy.  

So now I will return to my regular programming of riding to the lake and being pissed off about the 45th president's behavior.

A Trip to Everett, Washington

Greetings from Everett, Washington.  Why, you wonder, are we here?  When we used to work for Boeing, managers put intense pressure on employees to buy EE savings bonds. Jim was a manager and for him it was a condition of employment, so there was really no choice but to buy them.  I guess because the company had military contracts.  So we did.  Redeeming these bonds has become a nightmare.  No one wants to do it because it's time consuming and generates no income for the financial institution.  So, we drove from Spokane to Everett to go to our credit union, who has two offices that will still cash bonds for customers.  It's a loooooooooong drive.  You can mail them in, but given the current state of the USPS, we don't like to mail anything.

In July 2022, we drove to Bellingham (north of Everett) and the traffic on I5 from I90 to Bellingham was so horrendous, we declared never again.  Returning home, we took US 2 to avoid the traffic between Marysville and I90.  We remembered it as a pleasant drive.  Today we again took the US 2 route, and it was horrendous.  It goes through downtown Wenatchee, which took forever.  Every small town seems to have sprouted stop signs and round abouts. Part of the problem is that it's harvest season, there are many trucks on the road transporting food.  So, I think US 2 is now on the banned list.  Tomorrow, we're going to try I5 south, and then east on I90.  This is probably our last trip to the Seattle/Everett area.  The traffic is so bad, the drivers act like it's a personal insult to them if you change lanes, and there is really nothing over here worth a six hour drive.

Eastern Washington is really different from the western side of the state.  They get way more rain than we do.  Eastern is more desert-ish.  The area around the Columbia Basin is full of fruit trees, lima beans, alfalfa, timothy, sweet corn, seed corn, and potatoes. 

Here are photos from the day's drive.  They grow Kentucky Blue Grass for seed here.  Then they burn the fields to get rid of the grass part of the plant.

This looks like the Palouse.

We are heading down to the Columbia river.

The Rock Island dam.

Now we are entering the Cascade mountain range.  They keep the west side wet.

We're staying at what appears to be a new Hampton Inn in downtown Everett.  It's very nice.  Rooms are a little small, but we won't be here very long.

Photos of Stuff

Fall is sneaking up on us.  Last night I was wearing flannel pants and my camo hoody sweatshirt.  It's one of my more attractive outfits.  Jim gave me the flannel pants when they shrank after the first wash.  The camo was purchased on a return trip back to Tucson, when we'd left it was so hot we could not imagine it would ever be cold again.  Weather extremes mess with the packing paradigm.

I have some photos.  First off is another full moon picture.  I took it with Jim's phone, which has a better camera than mine does.  It's sort of a moody shot with the clouds.

These are photos from other people's yards.  It's nice when neighbors plant interesting things to look at, so I don't have to.

Yesterday Jim scrubbed the deck, and I pulled weeds.  Last winter was very mild.  This summer has seen an onslaught of crab grass, Christmas tree weeds (so called due to their red and green leaves), and ants.  Actual name is Euphorbia maculata, and it seems to sprout over night, I would really like a time lapse camera.  They grow flat on the ground, so there is much sitting and then getting up to dig them out.  Anyway, I bailed on riding, my legs were tired.  We walked down the edge of the lake instead.

It was a pretty walk.  We saw exactly one person on the walking trail.  Riding on Sunday is always risky.  Many people are out, and many of them do not know how to ride a bike safely.  When we were leaving the trail head, there were 5 or 6 people spread across the entire road, two with a foot down in the oncoming traffic lane.  I always wonder if they drive like that.

That's it, I'm done now.

The Democratic National Convention 2024

Greetings humans.  Neither Jim nor I have ever watched a political convention, ever.  Yet, there we were, every night, paying attention.  We didn't love all of it, like the roll call with the really loud music, but I guess that's generational.  What we did love was VP Harris' acceptance speech.  It was stupendous.  The speech itself was very well written and her delivery was perfect.  There was video clip of her talking to some teenage girls who wanted to know how she spoke so well in public. She said it's not about you, or what you're wearing, it's about the fact that you know something and you want the audience to know it as well.  She used being on the Titanic and being the only one who knew the ship was sinking.  You know, they need to know.  Her rapport with little kids and teens is just amazing.

So these are snippets that I want to keep and remember.  It's not that interesting of a post, but it's for me.

Tim Walz:
“When Republicans use the word — freedom — they mean that the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office, corporations free to pollute your air and water, and banks free to take advantage of customers,” Walz said. “But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people that you love, freedom to make your own health-care decisions and, yeah, your kids’ freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in the hall.”“When Republicans use the word — freedom — they mean that the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office, corporations free to pollute your air and water, and banks free to take advantage of customers,” Walz said. “But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people that you love, freedom to make your own health-care decisions and, yeah, your kids’ freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in the hall.”

Michele Obama:
But there are six words in that stretch that extend well beyond Trump. Obama used a phrase that succinctly and elegantly reframes the ongoing debate over inequality in the United States and how it might be addressed: “the affirmative action of generational wealth.” 

Secretary Buttigieg:
"I'm thinking of dinner time at our house in Michigan, when the dog is barking and the air fryer is beeping and the mac and cheese is boiling over and it feels like all the political negotiating experience in the world is not enough for me to get our three year old son and our three year old daughter to just wash their hands and sit at the table. It's the part of our day when politics seems the most distant, and yet the makeup of our kitchen table, the existence of my family, is just one example of something that was literally impossible as recently as 25 years ago. … I don't presume to know what it's like in your kitchen, but I know as sure as I am standing here, that everything in it, the bills you pay at that table, the shape of the family that sits there, the fears and the dreams that you talk about late into the night there, all of it compels us to demand more from our politics than a rerun of some TV wrestling death match."

Oprah Winfrey:
"And despite what some would have you think, we are not so different from our neighbors. When a house is on fire, we don’t ask about the homeowner’s race or religion. We don’t wonder who their partner is or how they voted. No, we just try to do the best we can to save them. And if the place happens to belong to a childless cat lady, well, we try to get that cat out too."  The full transcript is here.

It was great.  It was not boring, most speakers were good or excellent.  They brought in content creators and influencers who are broadcasting via social media; the mainstream media is offended by that.  Piss off.  Read more here.

If you can, contribute to your local Democratic candidates.  It's not enough to hold the White House, we need both houses of Congress, too. 

The Lake, Turkeys, and Gym Equipment

Mellow Greetings Earthlings.  How goes it in your parts?  It's not freaking hot anymore, but it's warm.  I had planned to sit on the front porch and type this while caramelizing onions in the grill, but it's too hot for that.  My fall back is to go out every 10 minutes and stir, hoping they won't have burned in the mean time.  They're labelled Walla Walla sweets, but they smell more like big yellow onions.  Cutting them up was brutal.

Two days ago there was almost a full moon.  All of my cameras refused to see it, but it's sort of a nice picture of across the street.

As usual, there has been riding to the lake.  I have two photos that do not totally suck.  The first is the exit road from the park.  This is the egress for cars and people towing boats.  Behind the flowers is private property, he has a massive garden as well as a boat lift.  Truly, he has housing perfection.

This duck was in the sun, you can see the color on his face.

The turkeys have been spending time in the next door yard.  We go for weeks without seeing them, but they've been here a lot as of late.  I was watching them dig.  They have big strong feet and they're not afraid to up root the annuals in a search for bugs.

Yesterday was terrible.  As you no doubt recall, in October of 2021, our home gym arrived.  We bought a pad that came in segments with interlocking sides.  It was a spectacular failure.  Even though we duct taped all of the seams on the underside, the combination of the movement of the machine, and the insanely Scotch Guarded carpet, resulted in the pad unzipping itself over time.  So, we had to partially disassemble the weight equipment so we could unload the weight stack so we could move it enough to get the new pad under it.  This resulted in me resting the top bar on my shoulder while Jim unloaded the stack.  It's very heavy.  Anyway, it's done now, if we get the same amount of time out of this pad, I will be a happy camper.  The whole exercise is leading me to think that should we move, that will not be going with us.  Packing would be horrific.  It looks nicer on the black pad than the previous one which was baby blue.

The orange menace has re-posted a video that claims that VP Harris has been promoted to her current position by doing sexual favors for men.  I can not tell you how revolting I find this person.  Coverage is here, if you're interested.  I don't want it touching my blog.

Fall is on its way, the hydrangeas are developing their rust color that they finish out the season with.

And finally, there is this.

But wait, there's also this.

Turkeys, New Food Review and the Orange Menace

Greetings Fellow Humans.  The heat has broken for awhile.  I think it's going to come back, but for now it is much more pleasant than it has been.  

There has been riding to the lake.  None of my photos have been particularly good.  The brown ducks are always in shadow and look like brown lumps.  The attractive kayaks are too far away.  I liked the way the green of the kayaks looked against the yellow of the millfoil.  This year's crop has been really large.

Apparently the quail and the turkeys have had an excellent summer of reproduction.  This flock was in the side yard the other day.  There was one Mom and her teen aged off spring following in her wake.

We have now tried two of Kevin's sauce packets.  In this area they do not come as part of a meal kit, one must procure and cook one's own chicken.  One does not (!) want to follow their cooking instructions.  They seem to have cut and pasted the text from the meal kit, which contains cooked chicken, and put them here.  Trust me, chicken takes longer than that to cook.

The Tikka Masala sauce was good.  If you like Indian restaurant food, you'll like this.  It's not overly hot, and we'll eat that one again.  The Lemongrass Basil sauce had good flavor, but, it was so hot it was painful. That one is not a repeater for us because we're hot food wimps.  We doused the left overs in plain yogurt which helped some with the heat.  So that is my new product review.

Thus far the press has not been covering the VP's campaign rallies.  They show the ones done by the orange menace, but not hers.  Instead, they kvetch and moan about the fact that she won't give interviews.  Why should she?  She's talking directly to the US citizens and she saw how MSM buried President Biden under coverage of he's too old, and nothing about what he's accomplished.  So I say to the press, piss off.

A truly extraordinary article is up on The Hill.  They are a right of center publication, but not bat shit crazy like OAN.  I will now excerpt some of what they said.  Actually that's the bulk of the article, I'm just so shocked to see this in a conservative newspaper.  Article, with no paywall, is here.

California political reporters were stunned when, in the middle of a news conference, Trump suddenly spun a riveting story of barely escaping death in a helicopter with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown – a scary flight during which, according to Trump, Brown never stopped trashing then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris.  

Soon other reporters fleshed out the story. Trump was dead wrong about everything. He did not take a helicopter ride with Willie Brown. He took one with then-Gov. Jerry Brown to view damage from California wildfires. Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom was also onboard. Both Brown and Newsom confirmed there was no problem with the aircraft, no emergency landing, and no discussion of Kamala Harris. 

Then it got even more bizarre. Former state Sen. Nate Holden of Los Angeles revealed that, years ago, he had, in fact, once shared a helicopter ride with Trump — from New York City — that experienced engine failure and made a bumpy landing. But, again, no talk about Kamala Harris. 

In other words, Trump just made it all up, confusing the Black Willie Brown with a white Jerry Brown, a Brown with a Holden, and New York City with California. He probably also invented the trash talk about Kamala Harris. One can only imagine how Republican leaders and the media would have condemned President Biden if he had made such a wild string of errors. 

One, Trump’s goal (which got lost in the helicopter story) was to respond to an obviously planted question by spreading an old attack line on Harris: that she only got where she is today because she had been in a relationship with Willie Brown. It’s the ugly misogynist smear used against any successful woman. It’s sexist, disgusting, and an insult to all women of America. 

It’s time the media stopped treating Donald Trump like a normal candidate and started portraying him for what he is: An angry old man, the oldest man ever to run for president, with increasing signs of mental health issues — and clearly unfit to be trusted with the office of president. 

That last paragraph!  WAPO, NYT, CNN, and MSNBC should all be saying this.  

Today's speech in North Carolina was to have been about the economy.  He immediately went off topic. 

Despite the event’s supposed focus on the economy, Trump appeared disinterested and out of his depth on the subject. “This is talking about a thing called the economy,” he rambled. “So we are doing this as an intellectual speech. You are all intellectuals today. Today we’re doing it. And we’re doing it right now.” But when he did attempt to discuss economic issues, he made puzzling remarks like, “They say the economy is the most important subject...I'm not so sure it is.”

More text and video can be found here.  It's worth reading.

Other than this, I have not too much to say, other than I will be glad when the elections are over and he loses.

Ok, this is really funny.  Go here and play the video.
Jim just sent me this, which is also hilarious.  Watch to the end, it's worth it.  It's from a movie, with new sub-titles.

Swift Boating and More Republican Lying

We rode this morning, it was nice.  Down at the lake, the scary geese are back.  These are the ones that bite.  We give them a wide berth.  It was a good ride, we clocked our best time for this summer.  We get faster, but the hills do not get less painful.   Funny how that works.

Welp, Granpa Ranty, aka the orange menace, held a press conference today.  It was just pathetic.  He leaned on a podium for an hour, and repeated all of his greatest lies.  He's fixated on crowd size.  Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are attracting huge crowds, way more than Grandpa does, and they're enthusiastic crowds.   Click here for video of Air Force Two landing in Michigan.  There are way more than 1,000 people in the audience, which is what the orange dude says her crowds are.  Additionally, he looked old and decrepit.  One of the best clips of a glitch can be found here.  Note that he's searching for words as he speaks.  He only has one event this week, in Montana.  One wonders if campaign staff is trying to keep people from seeing the deterioration.

Who remembers Swift Boat Veterans for Truth?  They were a political organization formed to tarnish the reputation of John Kerry when he was running for president.  Their claims were eventually found to be untrue, and they were fined $300,000.  However, the damage was done.  Swiftboating remains in the US lexicon.  Well, people like that are back.  Chris LaCivita worked on the first Swiftboat, and now he's back besmirching Tim Walz.  LaCivita is on the re-election team for the orange one.  Tim Walz achieved the rank of Command Sergeant Major, E9.  It's the highest enlisted rank there is.  After 24 years in the National Guard, Walz decided to retire because he wanted to run for Congress.  He retired at the rank of Master Sergeant E8 because he had not been to the training program required to retire as a Command Sergeant Major E9, despite functioning in that role.  There was no demotion.  There are ex-military people who are claiming that Walz retired rather that deploy to Iraq.  The timeline does not support that.  It takes months to retire, Walz started the process before deployment was announced.  He retired before his group deployed.  He did not abandon his troops as is being said.  The is Swiftboating at its finest.  It was first brought up in 2007, debunked, and now it's back.  These people should just sit down and quit talking.  As is so often the case, the mainstream media is not reporting this accurately.  It's just crazy making.  

However, all this gives some insight in to the character of J.D. Vance, who yesterday stood up in front of reporters and said that Tim Walz was guilty of stolen valor.  This is a huge insult among the military.  The fact that Vance would say this really lets you know how big of a snake he is.  Go here to watch the lying liar tell lies.

Update:  More from Fred Wellman who was a four tour helicopter driver in Desert Storm. 

So the entire attack on Tim Walz is based on the idea that the guy who replaced him when he retired had over 10 months in the job before they even went to pre-deployment training and wasn't able to lead the men effectively causing them to lose their lives over a year after Walz retired? That's your argument? It only gets more asinine when you find out the guy leading these attacks is THAT GUY! Walz isn't who let the men down. It's the incompetent asshole who didn't do his job and now blames him.

Update:  OK, one more.  Go to here for facts.

It is my most fervent wish that the orange one loses.  I am sick of seeing him, hearing him and worrying about Project 2025.

 

Riding and Seniors for the VP

It's warm again. Thursday we were up and out to ride.  It was an odd departure, it seemed like it took forever to get out of the house.  Some days are better than others.  It was a good day, the sun was out and it was pleasant.

Friday it hit 105F (40.5C) with some humidity.  Not Houston caliber humid, but enough. Saturday was another ride day, it was odd.  The clouds were very thick, there were no shadows either.  Part of the darkness was smoke from wild fires.  I don't know which one, but we could smell it.  It did produce this sunset last night.

This morning we woke up to a steady rain, which was good.  The air feels much better after a washing, and the grass prefers rain to city water.

Today was the "Seniors for Kamala" zoom call.  It was kind of disappointing.  I was hoping to hear about foreign policy, Ukraine, anti-trust stuff and and end to price fixing; things like that.  Douglas Emhoff was on with his parents.  They discussed the importance of family, and how nice Kamala Harris is to be around, and more family stuff.  I guess it was a tailored message to the elderly.  Perhaps I am not yet old enough to appreciate that particular message.  Then they brought out Richard Chamberlain, who originally found fame as Dr. Kildare in the 1960's.  He confirmed that the VP is nice, as well as smart.  Jim and I bailed at that point.  I wish we'd been on the "White Women for Kamala" call, apparently they had some Black ladies telling white women they needed to step up their game in this election.  I would have liked to have heard that one.

Anyway, they want volunteers for post card writing and phone banking.  I always wonder about the effectiveness of both communication methods.  Neither Jim nor I will answer the phone if we don't know who is calling.  If they want us, they can leave a message.  Jim gets 15 or so spams a day, and we don't want more.  I think many people won't answer.  Post cards have raised eyebrows on Facebook, as in how did you get my address?  Voter registration is a public record, so addresses are available I suppose, but that also feels intrusive to me.  The all important young voter is living on line, do they even get mail anymore?  I will say that the post card I got from the Arizona Democratic Party welcoming me to the fold was very nice to receive when we lived and voted there.  How does a campaign reach the young vote since they're not watching network television or reading newspapers?   The VP does have a Tik Tok account, which is humorous since the White House wants to ban tik tok if the parent company doesn't divest.

I saw this on twitter.  It's a reminder of the importance of the Oxford comma.

That's it, that's all I have to say.