Early Morning On The Trail, and This Addiction We Call Smartphones

A cottontail bunny rabbit munching on grasses early this morning off the Cedar River Trail. The grass is mostly brown because of our mostly dry summers here in the Pacific Northwest. Western Washington and Oregon are technically Mediterranean climate areas.

I ride my bike on the Cedar River Trail every morning. It's one of the best times of the day, actually. The world is quiet -- all you can hear is the merry rumble of the small creeks that run down the ravines into the River, and the songs of all the birds. Chickadees, Robins, Blue Jays, Song Sparrows, and the piccolo like notes of a Swainson's Thrush -- you can hear them every morning on the Trail.

A quiet morning at Riverside park. The area echoed with the sounds of all kinds of birds.

I usually take my camera with me when I ride. Sometimes I get pics of a sunrise, sometimes a bird or duck -- but usually the birds are a bit wary and they flit away when they see me stop my bike to photograph them.

A rock dove was sitting by the side of a nearby street yesterday afternoon. Unlike most birds, this dove (or pigeon) barely moved when I pulled out my camera.

The Cedar River yesterday, on a balmy summer afternoon. It was 80 degrees out (27C), and the sun felt warm on my back while I was out riding.

I also ride my bike during afternoons sometimes. The Trail is a safe, scenic place. The most dangerous thing is the spandex-wearing, speeding bikers who more often than not zip past pedestrians, kids, people with dogs, and slower bikers like myself. There is a 10 mile-per-hour speed limit on the Trail -- you wouldn't know it with some of these guys.

A few Canada Geese enjoying the Cedar River water yesterday afternoon. It was hard to get a decent picture because the trees kept getting in the way as the geese kept moving down the river.

One unusual thing I've noticed -- well, perhaps it isn't so unusual, in today's connected world -- is the complete addiction people have to their smart phones, often reaching insane proportions.

The ubiquitous cell phone. Although this one is a toy one I found near the Trail. You press a button, it rings and a female voice says "Operator! Can I help you?"

Countless times I've seen joggers, checking their all-important social media notifications while jogging. I always see moms pushing babies in strollers, completely ignoring the beauty around them. Where is their attention? On their cell phone, using their thumb to scroll through their all important notifications. I see couples -- not talking to each other or enjoying each other's company, and they are definitely not looking at the nature all around them -- they're both looking at their stupid smart phones.

A family floating down the Cedar River in inflatable rafts and inner-tubes, taken yesterday afternoon.

One day nearly all the people I saw on the Trail -- bikers excepted -- were staring at their smart phones. Why do they bother to use a nature trail when they aren't even looking around and appreciating the natural surroundings all around them? If they're not going to listen to the wind rustling the leaves of the cottonwoods, or listen to the birds calling from the woods all around them, or even enjoy the company of the person next to them, why don't they just stay home?

Now, I don't yet have a smart phone. I am not a phone person, and my flip phone may be ancient but it's cheap and saves me a lot of money. My computers and tablet are enough internet for me. But I will soon get a smart phone, because the local systems are going 3G / 4G etc. only. At the same time, I'll probably load up Instagram, Snapchat and all that fun stuff that everybody uses to stay connected.

But you can bet I won't be staring at my smart phone when I'm on the Trail, whether walking or riding. Smart phones can add a lot to life, both good (staying connected, good for an emergency) and bad (they're great cheating devices, as one of my friends recently discovered -- to his chagrin). But smart phones should never be your life.

As I type this, I'm drinking some cut Ginger and Pomegranate juice. Tastes terrific, and it's good for the circulatory system as well -- Pomegranate has a lot of antioxidants, and Ginger is good for a lot of things. Yes, it's a Christmas cup. It's Christmas year 'round at my house. :-)

Me earlier this year, probably in the Spring.

Here's hoping you all have a great third week of July.

CC 7-16-2016

FOURTH OF JULY, 2016

A pic of the Seattle Skyline on a sunny Wednesday afternoon, July 13th, 2016. Taken with my Canon A520 camera -- my Nikon snapshot camera's memory card is full. :-(

Last year I wrote a blog post on the Fourth Of July -- and now this year I find myself doing the same thing.

My new US Flag and Sammy the Cat.

I like holidays. I think part of it is because some holidays aren't celebrated as much as they used to be celebrated. May Day would be an example. In other parts of the world, May Day has always been an overseas version of our Labor Day. Here in the U.S. we have our own Labor Day at the end of Summer. Historically, in the U.S., May Day was only celebrated in some areas of the country that had German or Scandinavian immigrants. Up until the 1960's they still had the custom of making May baskets in some areas of the country.

A new US Flag, for sale at a local Fred Meyer 'box store'.

You'd make a 'basket' out of colored construction paper, with a paper handle glued on it, put some flowers in it, hang it on someone's door, ring their doorbell and run away.

Now, here in the U.S., May Day is more of a time for street protests -- and sometimes small riots.

But I digress.

Several of my US Flags I had outside during the Fourth Of July. It was mostly cloudy this Fourth -- it cleared up during the evening.

This Fourth Of July was a decent one for me. I went over to a friend's house where we ate hot dogs, beans, potato salad, and corn-on-the-cob: the traditional Fourth Of July meal. All around my friend's apartment complex, people were lighting off fireworks: big rockets that made starbursts in the sky.

One of several pics I got of fireworks in Auburn, a city 12 miles (15-20 km) south of me. My Nikon's "Fireworks" setting worked better than planned.

I took my Nikon L32 with me, and was able to get several decent photographs of skyrockets bursting in the air.

A series of pictures I took of local fireworks in Auburn. Most of these are "mortars", skyrockets set in a large, thick cardboard tube. Most of them were probably purchased at a nearby Indian Reservation.

We also watched two movies, I, Robot (starring Will Smith) and Mel Gibson's The Patriot. The Patriot was appropriate, as it is a movie about the Revolutionary War, and the Fourth Of July was the day that the Thirteen Colonies declared their Independence from the mother country.

A bunny rabbit near an open space next to my dentist's office. Taken this past week on my Nikon L32.

Mount Rainier obscured by clouds -- pic taken from my dentist's office in Tukwila, WA.

Earlier this year Mount Rainier could easily be seen from the same window.

A pic from the inside of the dentist's building. Trying to be creative with the camera.

They have the best coffee at my dentist's, ironically. It is made in one of those coffee makers that make coffee by the cup.

This Fourth I put out my flags. I bought a new flag which was on sale at the local box store, Fred Meyer -- part of the Kroger chain. I don't have any flagpoles out front, so I just shove the poles into my front hedge. As I said in a previous post, this Fourth has more meaning for me than previous Fourths. The country is going through some turmoil, and during such times it makes one reflect upon what it means to be an American.

As you can tell from some of my photos, I had a visit to the dentist's office this week, during Thursday afternoon. It was a warm and balmy day. A bunny rabbit was out munching on grasses, and I got a picture before it ran away. Luckily, I only needed some previous dental work checked. My tooth is healing better than expected, thank God.

THE SUN IS MOVING SOUTHWARDS :-(

Otherwise, life has been the same. The weather has just started to pick up -- for about two and a half weeks we had mostly cloudy weather, with temps around 65F / 18C or so. Now the sun is back. The "solstice sundial" I wrote about in earlier blog posts shows that the sun heading south, as can been seen in these two pictures, taken on different days over the past two weeks:

The sun setting over my 'solstice' hill, June 25th.

The sun setting from the same position, July 13th or 14th. You can see the sun behind a different tree about 1/4 way to the left of the picture. I took this picture with my Canon A520.

Just after sunset the Cedar River Trail looks like a golden, shining path.

In a way, seeing the sun head south again is depressing, because it means the days will get shorter and shorter, and soon enough -- Winter will be here. Sometimes I get the post Solstice blahs, just as I get the post Christmas blahs. It just happens. Both times of the year seems like gifts from God -- one is a time to celebrate religion and family and put up lots of colored lights, the other is a time of light and warmth. And when both seasons are gone, it's a bit of a let down.

Earlier today I took a ride on my bike, and took my trusty Canon A520 with me. A couple flowers have sprouted up alongside the Trail... They're probably weeds, but they still look cool:

This flower or weed is so bright a white that it shows up during twilight in early evening. It looks like a relative of the Yarrow plant.

I have no idea what sort of flower or plant this is. But it's a bright cheery yellow on a cloudy summer morning.

HARBINGER OF FALL

The other day while riding my bicycle I noticed this low branch of Oregon Big Leaf Maple leaves. They're already in Fall colors. Yikes. I think the cool weather we had over the past few weeks (since Solstice) -- combined with the hot April we had -- has fooled some of the trees. Or -- at least I hope that's the reason!

As I write this, it's about 22C out, and still cloudy. The weather man says it will be sunny later today. I'll probably work out later today, and do some yard work.

For those readers who are into the radio hobby, it's been a dull month or two lately. HF is mediocre, and the MW / AM band is fair to mediocre at night. KBRE 1660 / 105.7 The Bear comes in after 2 a.m. most nights in varying quality. I've sort of lost my enthusiasm for the radio hobby because atmospheric conditions have been so poor.

The late afternoon of June 26th, several families had picnics at the local "beach", a large sandbar at the Cedar River Trestle. It's a popular place for locals to picnic and swim, and has been for several generations.

I am planning a blog post of some Seattle pictures and Spring pictures I never got around to posting here. I hope to post some new pictures on my Flickr soon, which is located here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/120507399@N03/

My Flickr has a lot of pictures taken of the Cedar River area, the Seattle area, a few of the Seattle Skyline, and other pictures taken with all my cameras over the past two years or so.

ATTACKS IN FRANCE -- THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS

My thoughts and prayers go out to the French people: they are getting hit hard by terrorist attacks and it's disheartening. Here in the U.S. we've had some shootings that have obviously made the news, Orlando being the worst, numerically; and Dallas being the latest bad one. But the latest attack in France was terrible, with the guy running over families and shooting at people. Hopefully the authorities in both countries can figure a way to quell this kind of horrific violence.

A sunny day near the unknown flowers alongside the Trail. The closest thing I'll get to a selfie this blog post.

I hope my American readers had a safe and sane Fourth, and my overseas readers are having a great July overall... Stay safe, everybody.

CC 7-16-2016

Solstice & "California Weather"

Sunset at near-Solstice, June 16th, 2016. The trees on the distant hill are like sun-markers, sort of like a natural version of Stonehenge. After the 21st, the sun will gradually set further and further to the left (South).

As I write this it is the 22nd of June. Officially, Solstice is past. But anyone who has looked at an "analemma" graph on a world globe knows that the days around both solstices are equally long, at least for a period of three or four days or more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analemma

Here's an analemma graph taken from Wikipedia:

The red line on the graph shows the relative height of the sun at noon over the year. As you can see, the sun stays pretty high in the sky for several days between June 15th and July 15th.

A kitty-cat walks across the Trail during Sunset, June 16th, 2016.

When I was going to the University I would use a protractor and a pen and use them as a simple type of sextant, and track the height of the sun (in degrees) every noon. It was interesting to see the change in angle of the sun over a month or so.

I haven't done that since I left the U, but it's kind of cool to track the height of the sun -- it's something the ancients did on a daily or weekly basis before the introduction of the paper (or electronic) calendar -- when their agriculture depended on it.

The 'hill on fire', Sunset, June 19th.

Today it has been 75-80F out, and the sun is bright. "California Weather".

I call it that, because the weather is much like it usually is in California, the state about 800 mi / 1000 km south of us.

My life has been fairly mundane lately: yard work with the weed-whacker, a bit of writing, work (of course), working out (trying to make decent gains after passing 200 lbs on the bench press is a bit tough), and clearing up some of the clutter inside the house -- stuff I had been putting off for a few months.

The sunlight almost looks polarised in this pic of Trail users during sunset.

On the radio front it's been pretty blah. MW conditions have been fair to mediocre. I generally tune the Sangean to 1660 and place the Select-A-Tenna next to it and listen to KBRE 105.7 the Bear, which really does have a good selection of rock music.

A lot of guys say they don't need an external loop antenna with a Sangean PR-D5 -- I've found an external loop helpful because I live in a hole, surrounded by hills, and it is a low signals area.

Sometimes while listening to 1660 khz I hear a station from North Dakota interfering with KBRE (Sports talk KQWB), and most nights I hear one or two NOAA weather stations on 1660 -- they are low power stations based in Oregon, 200-300 km away.

I took my GE Superadio III into the storage room late one night while working out with weights, and listened to KBRE 1660 khz, from Merced, California -- 105.7 The Bear. My Superadio III is one of the better ones -- it matches my SR2 and SR1 in performance.

The past few afternoons and early evenings I have taken the camera out and have taken a couple pictures of sunsets. There really isn't that much more to photograph lately.

Ominous looking clouds on the early evening of St. John's Eve, June 21st.

SOCCER AND BREXIT

A few nights ago I watched the last quarter of play during the game between the U.S. and Argentina -- the Copa America. The U.S. soccer team did fairly well this time around -- they actually made it to the semifinals -- but Argentina shut them down. Argentina did to us what Germany did to them during the World Cup.

A layer of clouds over the darkened Seattle skyline the evening of June 20th, 2016. From Myers Way hill.

Soccer still is a puzzle to many Americans -- myself included. I enjoy watching the games when they're on TV, but it's more difficult to understand the complexities of soccer than other US sports like gridiron Football.

As I finish this blog post, it's 13C and cloudy, with periods of very soft rain. Our summer seems to have taken a temporary hiatus.

A Bumble-bee on a roadside clover blossom. Clover always remind me of when I was a child, and we'd visit my grandfather's farm, where the fields were full of clover blossoms.

The British people have just voted themselves out of the EU (the "Brexit") and that's big news here. The Stock Market here has dipped, but that occurs whenever there is any jolt on the world scene.

Of course, the details of the exit remain to be worked out. Hopefully, sane heads can prevail over the 'Brexit', and the relationship between Britain and Europe can remain peaceful and beneficial to all.

FOURTH OF JULY AND A NEW FLAG

As I post this, it is the start of the U.S. Fourth Of July weekend. For my overseas readers, the Fourth is the time Americans celebrate independence from the U.K. which was declared in 1776.

The sun setting through the trees off the Cedar River Trail on June 21st, St. John's Eve. Americans don't celebrate St. John's Eve, but the idea of lighting a bonfire on the evening of Solstice is a cool idea. Apparently it was lost when our forbears crossed the Atlantic.

This year, for some reason, I have a stronger feeling towards my country than usual. I can't put my finger on the reason. Maybe some of it is the tentative nature of the times -- election year rhetoric, divisions in the country, etc. The U.S., however, has survived several wars and a Depression, and survived the turmoil in the 1960's which surrounded Civil Rights and the Vietnam War. It will undoubtedly survive the next election, no matter who gets in.

The last rays of the sun on a hillside off the Cedar River Trail, June 21st.

This Fourth Of July my thoughts will go towards my father and all my uncles (all gone now), who all served in the military during several wars.

I have no great plans for the Fourth. Probably I'll light some sparklers and roast some hot dogs. I'll put out my U.S. flags, including a new one I bought on sale at a local box store after I bought a new electric hedge trimmer (which I really, really needed).

A roadside flower -- I have no idea what kind of flower it is.

Here's hoping all you readers have a good July.

PS -- This blog post is a few days late, but I have decided to post it -- as is -- anyway. CC