Along the way, we stopped at the Bonneville Dam and also the Fish Hatchery.
Friday, July 31, 2015
Road Trip Home, Part 2
We drove up the Columbia River Gorge. So beautiful!
Along the way, we stopped at the Bonneville Dam and also the Fish Hatchery.
Along the way, we stopped at the Bonneville Dam and also the Fish Hatchery.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Road Trip Home, Part 1
I picked up my Mom for a road trip from Oregon to the Great Northwoods on a Sunday afternoon at the train station in Vancouver, WA. (I was staying south of Portland, OR, but my Mom figured that Vancouver would be easier for me to negotiate, so went there. She was probably right, though I think I could have managed to find a train station in Portland, too.)
Anyway, the train track from the south into Vancouver comes over a swing bridge. That means it turns the track sideways to let vessels use the river freely, and then turns it 180 degrees when the train is coming to use it.
Pictures? Of course!
There's something wonderful about a good train station, a quiet excitement, maybe. I wish we'd put more money into encouraging people to commute by train, into high speed rail, and so on. (But there are areas where that's not practical because of the distances, I realize.)
I read an article recently arguing that we should turn the Interstate Highway system over to states, and encourage them to make toll roads and such so that people will commute by train or carpool instead. It read like the author hadn't ever seen the Midwest. I hate toll roads. I grew up in an area dominated by bridge traffic, and there's always a snarl. And the snarl is multiplied by the toll booths. Why would you add them just to add them?
How about, instead, we raise income taxes progressively and use the money for infrastructure, including, where possible, high speed rail? If people can get from point A to point B in half an hour by train instead of three hours by car, and they can afford it, and it runs at the times they need to commute, they'll take the train. (And the system needs to be designed so that it doesn't punish people who work night shifts.)
Enough ranting about transportation.
We drove up the Columbia River Gorge. My dog, but that's a beautiful area! More on that, tomorrow.
Meanwhile, I'm known as "The U Turn Queen." Mostly by myself. I just seem to need to make U turns fairly often. So I noticed when I saw this airplane contrail of a U turn! I wonder what that was about?
Anyway, the train track from the south into Vancouver comes over a swing bridge. That means it turns the track sideways to let vessels use the river freely, and then turns it 180 degrees when the train is coming to use it.
Pictures? Of course!
There's something wonderful about a good train station, a quiet excitement, maybe. I wish we'd put more money into encouraging people to commute by train, into high speed rail, and so on. (But there are areas where that's not practical because of the distances, I realize.)
I read an article recently arguing that we should turn the Interstate Highway system over to states, and encourage them to make toll roads and such so that people will commute by train or carpool instead. It read like the author hadn't ever seen the Midwest. I hate toll roads. I grew up in an area dominated by bridge traffic, and there's always a snarl. And the snarl is multiplied by the toll booths. Why would you add them just to add them?
How about, instead, we raise income taxes progressively and use the money for infrastructure, including, where possible, high speed rail? If people can get from point A to point B in half an hour by train instead of three hours by car, and they can afford it, and it runs at the times they need to commute, they'll take the train. (And the system needs to be designed so that it doesn't punish people who work night shifts.)
Enough ranting about transportation.
We drove up the Columbia River Gorge. My dog, but that's a beautiful area! More on that, tomorrow.
Meanwhile, I'm known as "The U Turn Queen." Mostly by myself. I just seem to need to make U turns fairly often. So I noticed when I saw this airplane contrail of a U turn! I wonder what that was about?
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Peace Corps Reunion
The primary reason for my trip across country was to go to my Peace Corps reunion. Entering groups in the Peace Corps get an Omnibus number. So, there will be a designation for people based on the country, and the omnibus number, and the job type. Ours was a forestry omnibus, and we entered training in Miami with a healthcare group and a special education group, all headed for the same country. We spent a week in Miami, and then flew to our country in South America. In Miami, we were all together, but in country, our training was by group. The forestry folks had our first seven weeks of language and cultural training at the local YMCA (which you don't spell out in Spanish, but pronounce with the Y making an I sound). During these first seven weeks, we mostly went to YMCA early in the morning, had language and cultural training all day, with occasional field trips on buses to the market or whatever, and then went back to our host families in the late afternoon. We had one weekend where we were sent to visit another volunteer in Forestry at their site.
After the seven weeks, we were sent down to our future site for a week (or maybe two?). My site was six hours by bus from the capital, and during the week, I stayed with my counterpart's family.
And then we had seven more weeks of job type training to teach us the specifics of what we needed to know, more or less. (We foresters trained at a national park in the Andes, but for those of us who worked in more tropical areas, the training wasn't that specifically useful.)
Anyway, that was a long way of saying that in my experience, PC volunteers identified with a smallish group (ours was 28 or so, I think), in my case the Forestry volunteers I trained with. While in service, I lived near volunteers in other fields much more, and got to know them, but I don't identify with them in quite the same way.
At our reunion, two nurses from the health group that came in with us were there, one because she was always part of our group, being married to a forester from our group, and one because she's close friends with one of the other foresters still.
The thing is, I don't know of any other omnibus group that has reunions the way we do.
Most of us got to the reunion on Wednesday afternoon, and on Thursday, we went to Mt. St. Helens and did a little hike. It was hot, and up and down (my fitbit said I walked 189 flights of stairs), but not even 5 miles. It felt like more.
On Saturday, we went wine tasting at a local winery, and got a tour of the vineyard.
Being forestry folks, we were especially interested in the grafting of the vines. Some vines have been grafted twice.
This vineyard also has amazing flowers (including lots of lavender) for the bees and to deter bad bugs.
So that was the Peace Corps reunion. In between our field trips, we made and shared a lot of food, laughed and reminisced together, and just had a great time. I'm reminded yet again what a great bunch of people I trained and served with.
After the seven weeks, we were sent down to our future site for a week (or maybe two?). My site was six hours by bus from the capital, and during the week, I stayed with my counterpart's family.
And then we had seven more weeks of job type training to teach us the specifics of what we needed to know, more or less. (We foresters trained at a national park in the Andes, but for those of us who worked in more tropical areas, the training wasn't that specifically useful.)
Anyway, that was a long way of saying that in my experience, PC volunteers identified with a smallish group (ours was 28 or so, I think), in my case the Forestry volunteers I trained with. While in service, I lived near volunteers in other fields much more, and got to know them, but I don't identify with them in quite the same way.
At our reunion, two nurses from the health group that came in with us were there, one because she was always part of our group, being married to a forester from our group, and one because she's close friends with one of the other foresters still.
The thing is, I don't know of any other omnibus group that has reunions the way we do.
Most of us got to the reunion on Wednesday afternoon, and on Thursday, we went to Mt. St. Helens and did a little hike. It was hot, and up and down (my fitbit said I walked 189 flights of stairs), but not even 5 miles. It felt like more.
The next day, we went to Latourelle Falls, and hiked again. This time it was much cooler, and we didn't hike quite as long. We went up not quite to the top here, and then we had an overview of the Columbia River.
On Saturday, we went wine tasting at a local winery, and got a tour of the vineyard.
Being forestry folks, we were especially interested in the grafting of the vines. Some vines have been grafted twice.
This vineyard also has amazing flowers (including lots of lavender) for the bees and to deter bad bugs.
So that was the Peace Corps reunion. In between our field trips, we made and shared a lot of food, laughed and reminisced together, and just had a great time. I'm reminded yet again what a great bunch of people I trained and served with.
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Observations from a Road Trip
1. 5000+ miles in about 17 days is a lot. (I drove the first two-thirds or so in three days, then was mostly not driving for four days, and then drove the rest in about ten days.) Corollary: having a reliable car helps make life much better than not.
2. North Dakota goes on for a long, long time.
3. There's a whole lot of corn and soy being grown, also many, many cattle.
4. Western forests smell very different from Midwestern forests. I'm not quite sure what it is, but there's an earthy smell that I just love. Maybe it's the firs? Or being drier? Whatever it is, it's very good.
5. I would very much hate to be a long haul trucker.
I'm back now, and feeling so very far behind. But I'll put up some pictures, if only so that I can look at them easily.
2. North Dakota goes on for a long, long time.
3. There's a whole lot of corn and soy being grown, also many, many cattle.
4. Western forests smell very different from Midwestern forests. I'm not quite sure what it is, but there's an earthy smell that I just love. Maybe it's the firs? Or being drier? Whatever it is, it's very good.
5. I would very much hate to be a long haul trucker.
I'm back now, and feeling so very far behind. But I'll put up some pictures, if only so that I can look at them easily.
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Shy
My Mom and I are on a road trip now, and we went to Mt. St. Helens. Unfortunately, the mountain was a bit shy.
But here's what it looked like when my Peace Corps reunion group went for a hike less than a week ago.
Monday, July 06, 2015
In a Flat Place
And then I got to a less flat place.
And I've cleaned my camera lens, which I probably should have done a long time ago. (Or maybe I should take it in and have it cleaned?) I also just realized that the grippy part of the camera, the sort of bulgy area on the right side of an DSLR, had a grippy film on it, which is now about half worn away.
At any rate, I'm on my way to a reunion of my Peace Corps group, and then will do a road trip with my Mom who's never driven across country this way. I hope it goes well all around.
Wednesday, July 01, 2015
Garden, July First
I'm sharing some pictures of the garden, but just so you remember, here's the picture I took in early June. (I was a little late getting things in.)
Here's the same area now!
And finally, there are artichokes. I have two plants that survived the winter, and three new ones. And four of these are growing little chokes now! (The two winter survivors are at the back, starting in the black pot. Each pot except the center one has a little choke starting.)
Here's the same area now!
On Monday, I had two broccoli plants doing well. On Tuesday morning, they'd both had their tops taken off and away.
I don't know quite what to do about spinach. I had some there, and took the leaves for a while until the plants started doing the seeding thing. So I pulled them, and then planted a couple more seeds. (They aren't up yet.) Anyway, things are growing and I'm happy about that.
There are also plants on the deck. A friend told me you could put a pumpkin in a planter and then grow it up a trellis and support any pumpkins with pantyhose. We'll see.
And there are a couple of tomato plants because they're usually pretty easy to grow and success is good.And finally, there are artichokes. I have two plants that survived the winter, and three new ones. And four of these are growing little chokes now! (The two winter survivors are at the back, starting in the black pot. Each pot except the center one has a little choke starting.)
Imagining Benefits
Back before the latest budget crisis, our union, the one that's not allowed to bargain collectively on our behalf, sent out a questionnaire about benefits. Basically, they were asking what benefits we union folks would want the union to argue for.
The thing about benefits is that they cost money, along with salaries, and so the balance here has been that we've had lower than average salaries (compared to our peer institutions in the region) for pretty decent benefits.
We're all mutually subsidizing our basic health insurance, for example, to the tune of $650 or more a year (that's the last number I remember, but it's probably gone up), though we also pay for our health insurance. Similarly, we're all covered by basic life insurance at the same rate, and only pay more if we want higher coverage. We also have a state pension (which we contribute to), and have access to a 403B plan (which the state organizes and makes available, but doesn't contribute directly to).
Some benefits are only available to some people, and so the rest of us subsidize those benefits. People who have a spouse or children covered on their health insurance pay a higher rate for that coverage, but it's still mostly subsidized. (That is, instead of the university putting in $650 for the second person, it puts in $550 or so. The second and more people added cost another $150 or so for the employee.) Those of us who don't have spouses or kids don't benefit, but we're contributing.
There's also subsidized daycare (more subsidy for students, less for employees), which only people with little children use. And so on.
Employees can also get spouses and kids a campus card so that they can use the facilities such as the swimming pool and such, and also take city buses that the campus pays the city so that campus people (students, employees, etc) can ride "free."
The list of imagined benefits the union suggested were mostly things like free or reduced tuition for kids and such.
Now I don't usually think about what benefits I'd like beyond health insurance, but here goes:
What benefits might one wish for?
Are there benefits one might wish for that would be accessible to everyone, and not just people who have spouses or dependents?
My idea would be to give every employee a "pot" of benefit money after basic health insurance and such, and let them decide which benefit to fund, health insurance for a spouse or dependent(s), day care, or a contribution to, say, a 403b type account or to paying off student loans.
Let's imagine that the additional money averages out to $400 a month. People with spouses or dependents could put that towards health insurance, though they'd have to also put in more than they do now. But people who don't have spouses or dependents and who now subsidize those who do could instead get help with student loans or retirement. (And for single people, who won't have a potential second income to help with such things, that can make a big difference.)
The thing about benefits is that they cost money, along with salaries, and so the balance here has been that we've had lower than average salaries (compared to our peer institutions in the region) for pretty decent benefits.
We're all mutually subsidizing our basic health insurance, for example, to the tune of $650 or more a year (that's the last number I remember, but it's probably gone up), though we also pay for our health insurance. Similarly, we're all covered by basic life insurance at the same rate, and only pay more if we want higher coverage. We also have a state pension (which we contribute to), and have access to a 403B plan (which the state organizes and makes available, but doesn't contribute directly to).
Some benefits are only available to some people, and so the rest of us subsidize those benefits. People who have a spouse or children covered on their health insurance pay a higher rate for that coverage, but it's still mostly subsidized. (That is, instead of the university putting in $650 for the second person, it puts in $550 or so. The second and more people added cost another $150 or so for the employee.) Those of us who don't have spouses or kids don't benefit, but we're contributing.
There's also subsidized daycare (more subsidy for students, less for employees), which only people with little children use. And so on.
Employees can also get spouses and kids a campus card so that they can use the facilities such as the swimming pool and such, and also take city buses that the campus pays the city so that campus people (students, employees, etc) can ride "free."
The list of imagined benefits the union suggested were mostly things like free or reduced tuition for kids and such.
Now I don't usually think about what benefits I'd like beyond health insurance, but here goes:
What benefits might one wish for?
Are there benefits one might wish for that would be accessible to everyone, and not just people who have spouses or dependents?
My idea would be to give every employee a "pot" of benefit money after basic health insurance and such, and let them decide which benefit to fund, health insurance for a spouse or dependent(s), day care, or a contribution to, say, a 403b type account or to paying off student loans.
Let's imagine that the additional money averages out to $400 a month. People with spouses or dependents could put that towards health insurance, though they'd have to also put in more than they do now. But people who don't have spouses or dependents and who now subsidize those who do could instead get help with student loans or retirement. (And for single people, who won't have a potential second income to help with such things, that can make a big difference.)
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