Sprung forward

So, there were bold plans for this morning - a 7am walk on the Bay trail with a pal. But when the kitty-gets-his-pills 6am alarm went off at what was still 5am in my head and body and I realized that it would actually be a pre-dawn walk with the time change, we canceled. I thought about sleeping in, but the kitty shortly thereafter decided it was time to get up anyway, so here we are.

Since the PST/PDT is a marker of change, I thought I would check in to this venue about the Bug Change that is coming up: at the end of the month, the Bellingham condo will go on the market and we will begin our transition to Tacoma.

There's lots of moving parts involved in this transition: selling this place, with a rent-back; finding a new place 120 miles away - just far enough away to be really annoying; closing both of those; moving; Coco's finishing her thesis and graduating; Coco's finding or starting a practice in Tacoma; and my figuring out what I'm going to do next. And we have to do all that while caring for our superannuated cat, dealing with the "end" of the pandemic, and trying to make sure we keep connected to the people we care about up here. It's gonna be a busy 90 days or so.

And yet, it feels right. As much as we both love Bellingham and will miss our walks on the bay, it is time for a change. We're getting a better sense of what this next chapter is going to look like,and starting it in a new place seems fitting.

For a little while, book reviews and ruminative essays might be a little thin on the ground, but only because I will be otherwise occupied.

Oh, and by the way:

Solstice 2022

stock photo

 Here's a little factoid:

The December solstice (winter solstice) in Bellingham is at 1:48 pm on Wednesday, December 21, 2022. In terms of daylight, this day is 7 hours, 54 minutes shorter than the June solstice.

Not to put too fine a pint on it, but today we here in the City of Subdued Excitement will have 8 hours and 15 minutes of daytime; it'll start in a little less than a half-hour at 8:00 am and end at 4:15pm.

Everyone always says "well, at least the days are getting longer now!" True enough; however, I don't think we really feel a difference until  what some people call the Seasonal Sabbat - halfway between the solstice and the equinox - in this case, Imbolc on February 2. Until then, we're still in the bottom half of the bottom half, so to speak. Until then, we're still toiling in the dark, as it were.

Of course, YMMV. Happy Solstice Day anyway.

 ***

BTW, you may have noticed there hasn't been a book club entry for over two weeks. It isn't really a dry spell; more of a shallow spell. I keep starting books but nothing lately has really grabbed me, so I put that book aside and grab a different one. I am hoping to break the streak soon, but we'll see.

 ***

my photo

EDIT: This may be the shortest day if the year, but it looks like it's going to be jam-packed with daylight! While it is a cold 13 degrees still, it is clear and crisp and sunny! Now, that's what I call a solstice!

 

Once more into the breach

 

So, yeah, this happened yesterday: the BTC Board of Trustees approved a contract for your humble servant as Interim President and Chief Academic Officer of the college from January 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022. I start shadowing the president on December 1 (no stonewalling the transition team in this transfer of authority).

Besides actually continuing the business of the college to provide workforce education, all that's on the agenda for the year and a half in the job is balancing the college budget in the face of declining revenue and financial support; reversing an enrollment drop that has hopefully hit bottom at 20% down; navigating a change to an entirely new computer system for all campus operations; launching a new Guided Pathways initiative that reconfigures curricula across the college; getting through an Evaluation of Institutional Effectiveness site visit from our regional accrediting body; and opening negotiations for the faculty collective bargaining agreement. Oh - and doing it all on Zoom under pandemic conditions, at least for the near future.

Piece of cake.

Seriously, I am pretty chuffed, as the Great Pottery Throwdown contestants were wont to say. (BTW, that's a great show.) The move to Bellingham and to BTC has been a good one on so many levels, and this is just another positive development stemming from that decision. It's a nice affirmation of what is now a 23-year career in the community and technical college system, and the support and confidence demonstrated by the Trustees, my president, and my colleagues is truly heartening. I thought that Vice President of Academic Affairs was going to be my last, best job... but I guess not.

I have no idea what the situation will be twenty months from now, or where I will wind up for the last few miles of my ride into the sunset, but I am excited to begin this new phase. I think this message from my current assistant accurately sums up what's in store:

Up, up, and away!

Six mile limit?

So, back in Seattle, I lived within easy striking distance of the Burke-Gilman trail, which, with it's eastside connector the Sammammish River Trail, gave me over 30 miles of paved, separate paths for biking. Here's a map, courtesy of the Seattle Bike Blog:

The path runs through neighborhoods, through two college campuses, through parks, by lakes, over rivers - every turn brings a new scenescape. The path is filled with walkers, runners and bilkers of all stripes, from iron men to stroke recovery patients.

I used to ride for fun a lot, and bike-commuted 13 miles (in nice weather) to my college in Bothell, from that big curve right above where it says University of Washington right onto campus. It actually took me to places I wanted to go, - not just recreation, but shops as well. I could jump on it whenever I wanted, and get in an easy ride or a long one, no sweat.

I miss it.

Bellingham is pretty much a biking mecca, but it's mountain biking - you know, like no-snow, wheeled skiing. Drag your butt and your bike up to the top of a cliff and go whee all the way down, trying (or not) to avoid roots, rocks, bumps and other obstacles. I know folks who do it regularly, who would do it daily, who do it when it's raining, who do it at nigh, who do it when it's raining at night.

I'm not interested.

Luckily, I live adjacent to the Interurban Trail and just blocks from the South Bay Trail, two of Bellingham's premiere bike paths. I don't want to sound ungrateful, but even this near-perfect location has two major flaws.

First, the trails are not paved - they are gravel. Spoiled by the blacktop of the Burke, I find the going bumpy and unstable, even on my hybrid bike - lord knows how anyone with a touring bike does it. I even had to buy fatter knobby tires.

But more than that, the problem is the trails don't go anywhere. Here's take a look:

A prime ride down the interurban trail to Larrabee State Park: six and a half miles. That's the whole trail.

A nice ride up the Bay Trail and then some more along the waterfront and in the marinas: sixc and a third miles.

Or the Bay Trail, through downtown and into Cornwall park: five and half miles, and about two of those are on city streets.

Speaking of city streets, this route to Whatcom Falls park is mostly streets, although I tried to string little pieces of trail together: a hair over six miles.

Anything that goes past these limits becomes pure mall-burbia car-country unpleasant and unsuitable for riding, at least for me. The core city streets are a little better, but I may have lost my stomach for riding in substantial auto traffic.

I even thought about taking the bus out to the county and riding the country roads, but all my peeps who live out here advised against it: no shoulders and crazy drivers.

I guess I learned a few things from this rumination. You can't road bike in a mountain bike town. I'm not as young (or perhaps as stupid) as once I was. The Burke spoiled me.

And Bellingham is about six miles big.

Penultimate day: looking backwards

Coco loves to play with photo editors - I really liked this one.

So, it was a good year, overall.

Work consumed a lot of the year. I was named Interim Vice President of Instruction at my college on January 1, and was selected as permanent Vice President of Academic Affairs & Student Learning in June (same job, just a different title). I have to say (and have said) that for the first six months of 2018 I worked more and harder, and was further behind than I can remember being at any job in the past twenty years. Thankfully, summer gave me the opportunity to regroup, and fall has been less crazed - I have new deans and will be starting 2019 with a full complement of administrators, so things should be a bit more manageable. It's a great gig - I have said that I want it to be my last, best job, and I think we're still on that trajectory.

A day in the life

The next big item was the house. This was the year of Home Ownership Ascendant: new dining room set, new Smart TV, new kitchen appliances, new hardwood (bamboo) floors on the upper floor. Lots of fuss & feathers, and lots of do-re-mi out the door, but it seems to have been worth it.

Floors

 

I also did a lot of health care - started off the year with a colonoscopy and have been going to the doctor (as well as the dentist) routinely now. I am up to six pills in the morning: one for high blood pressure, one for thyroid, one for allergies, two vitamins the doctor told me to take, and a probiotic that Coco says I should take. As the saying goes, if I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.

And politics... well, the less said the better. High hopes for January and some checks on the madness.

But still, we had good times.

I played a lot of D&D; not enough, but a lot. I had to quit one game, a couple of others were strictly short-term, one long-term campaign ended, and I'm in one monthly now. The logistics can be challenging when half my gaming peeps are down in Seattle. I even took a manic weekend trip to Boston to play in annual weekend retreat game as guest of my friend Lyle - I was honored to have been invited and had a great time, but one weekend a year ain't gonna do the trick.

My current character, Just Joa

We had visitors - the selfsame Lyle (once alone and once with family); Diane (for Pride); Karmin; Jackie & Jeff (technically, we met in the middle); Erin & Tim; Margaret; and Jason & Emma & Sky.

I took a drawing class and made some pictures.

We got up to White Rock and Vancouver several times and of course we topped the year off with Palm Springs.

Click to embiggen and panoramacize the view of Joshua Tree National Park

And of course, I got to spend the whole year with this wonderful family:

Coco the Adorable:

Here she is in disguise as a Fly Girl:

And the bully-boy, Selkie:

And one last shot of me, participating in Turban Awareness Day at the College. The fellow who wrapped me said I have the perfect head for turban-wearing, and someone who should know said I looked like many of the older men in Northern India. What can I say? It's headwear.

I hope that looking back 2018 been as kind to you as it has to me.  Onward!

Staycation Daze 3: Now that's more like it

So, balancing out the Mt. Baker misadventure on Monday, Coco and I had a nice excursion to Orcas Island in the San Juans on Tuesday. It was a bit of a sampler tour, as we took in Eastsound, Moran State Park, and Doe Bay in our little day trip. The weather cooperated, so the ferry rides to and from were as pleasant a part of the adventure as any thing else.

The highlight of the day was climbing the lookout tower on Mt. Constitution - at 2400 feet, we weren't half as high as Artist Point on Baker, but man what a view!

We could see our house from here! Well, almost - there were trees in the way. But using borrowed binoculars, I did clearly identify the senior housing a block or two away from our place.

Here's a bit closer look:

Coco was kind of a tour guide, as she had visited the island most recently - like, 15 years ago. Surprisingly, not much had changed. Besides looking out into the wild blue yonder, we had a good meal at a little hippie restaurant she remembered and which was still there, and walked through Doe Day Resort, where she had once vacationed in a yurt and which we bookmarked for a future weekend getaway. Coco bought some nice-smelling lavender stuff and I got a new pair of clip-on, flip-up sunglasses, and we both ate ice cream cones in the sunshine.
 
All in all, a great trip, marred only by some nagging work details that I couldn't quite shake out of my consciousness. I'm trying to get my head into full vacation mode, but it doesn't seem to be working.

Blah, blah, boo-hoo, poor me. Still a heckuva great day with my sweetie.

Staycation daze 2: The Long and Winding Road

So, Coco had a burst of spontaneity this afternoon and suggested that we make sandwiches, drive to Artist Point on Mount Baker, and eat dinner while taking in the vista. Mt. Baker is right in our backyard, so to speak, so I readily agreed. After her acupuncture appointment, we threw together some hoagies, jumped in the Scion, and headed out.

At first, it was exactly as we imagined: the glory of the natural world, bursting with beauty.

Pacific Northwest forests really are beautiful.

We neglected to consider two factors: (a) it is still very early in the season, mountain-wise, and (b) Artist Point is at about 5100 feet. Our sunny vacation day afternoon drive soon turned into... something else.

Yes, the road to Artist Point was clear, but there were still yards of snow on either side - toward the top, it was more like traversing a tunnel than enjoying a ride in country. What's more, we actually climbed up into the cloud layer, so visibility was about ten feet. The vista, when we finally reached the top, was, shall we say, limited.

On the other hand, parking was easy to find.

It was also about 40 degrees, and although the composting toilets were open, those and the trash cans were the extent of the accessible features.

Yes, there is a door to a restroom in there.

We changed our plans, turned around, and drove back down the mountain. Once we got below the cloud layer, it started to rain on us, a perfect cap to the expedition. We sped down the mountain to a brewery/pizzeria right on the edges of the civilized world: it gets great reviews and we have been meaning to try it, so this seemed like the time. I wish I could tell you that the pizza and the beer were great and made the whole misadventure worth it, but both were just okay.

What did make the whole trip worth it was getting to spend a few uninterrupted hours with my sweetie, listening to music, chatting, and laughing at our own damn crazy selves. That's what I call good times.

Staycation daze

So, after six solid months of Interim VP duty and a transition to "permanent" VP, all of which involved a considerable number of twelve-hour days and of instances of working on weekends, graduation has come and gone and I am finally in a position to take vacation.

Or I guess it's what's now called a staycation - some familial responsibilities are keeping Coco in town, and a rare visit from an east-cost pal happens to coincide with my time off, so we're not leaving ton. (Coco is off on summer break, no teaching, so she's on a long staycation.)

Friday was technically my first day off, but it was more like a recovery day. We cleaned out the garage a bit, read a little, napped a lot, and we watched Justice League.

Saturday was supposed to be nice, so we grabbed the Nexus passes and headed up to B.C., intending to traverse the rope bridge at Capilano. The cloudy skies just a relatively few kilometers north weren't burning off, however, so we had to settle for a little shopping and some lunch at Chau Veggie Express, our new go-to for vegetarian pan-Asian food. While at IKEA, we saw a sign that coincidentally mirrored our quest:

 

Our cleaning spree had inspired Coco to address the growing disorder in her art-studio corner of the garage, so this seemed awfully timely. And while we didn't find anything to do the trick at IKEA, or even in Canada, we did score some shelving at the local Lowe's - more below.

That night, we watched Hello, My Name is Doris - no review forthcoming, but it was a sweet, quirky little movie that a well worth catching.

This morning, Sunday, we assembled the shelving we had picked up on Saturday that was meant to tame Coco's creative chaos; like a dam holding back a mighty river, only time will tell whether it is up to the task:

But this is supposed to be a staycation, not a workation, so after lunch Coco and I urban-hiked to the View Tower in the Sehome Hill Arboretum on the Western Washington University campus:

The whole trip comprised only a little over three miles, but you can see the elevation change.  The trip through the adjoining neighborhoods was uneventful, but as we entered the arboretum proper, we encountered something right out of a horror movie:

This message did not appear to be referencing the trail itself... but nothing creepy appeared.
 
In the end, the view was well worth it:

That's Canada way off on the horizon.

We thought our exertions merited some dinner, so we made our way down to a local brew pub. Along the way, we encountered this D&D-centric school:

I wondered if they have separate schools for halflings, dwarves, half-orcs, and so on. We made it to dinner without encountering any elves, whether Wood, Sun, or Deep. The food was good, and a brew pub wouldn't be a brew pub without brew, so:

Which of course led to this:

Not a bad start, I'd say.

Diamond Jubilee

So, I recently passed a milestone. (Better than a gallstone, amirite? I'm here all week.) My birthday this past week saw me hitting the big round 60.

I marked the last of my fifties with a day; for this landmark is sort of spent a whole week celebrating.

It started on Saturday last week with Geek Girl Con, the celebration of popular culture, art, and science for the female half of the population. I have attended all but one of these events since they started - I missed last year. Well, I re-upped this year, joined by perennial con pal Margaret (who cosplayed Mac, the doctor from Miss Fishers Murder Mysteries).

 Margaret, worn out and resting in Introvert Alley

Last visit I mentioned that GGC might be starting to show its age a bit; this visit I noticed that the con seemed smaller, both less-attended, with fewer vendors/exhibitors, and not as many Big Names. There was some internal staff kerfuffle earlier in the year; I am not sure if that contributed to the perceived admonishment, or if we're getting con fatigue, or what. Nonetheless, there were several bright spots - some, of course, in the cosplay:

I was thrilled to see a crossplay Jason Momoa Aquaman even before the movie is out!

Perhaps even more exciting was encountering this 80s/90s Kimiyo Hoshi version of Dr. Light! She seemed very grateful that someone recognized her...

I truncated my con attendance to one day, because Sunday I was DMing a big Dungeons and Dragon session at my old haunt, Wayward Coffeehouse. They made me feel very welcome after two years away, reserving the best table:

Here's the party of adventurers:

And here's the party of players:

Yup, after a six-year hiatus, it was the return of DM Walaka and his All-Girl Band of Murder Hoboes, renamed the Wonder Woman, Wonder Women Celebratory Campaign! It was a swell six-and-a-half hour adventure with an awesome group of creative and energetic players. Thrill, chills, and spills were all to be had, and an awesome (if I do say so myself) Unexpected Plot Twist at the end.

Fighting giant snakes!

Entering the dragon's skull!

A seriously great time.

Then Monday I was sick as a dog. Margaret called it Con Crud, and I found out she was under the weather that day as well, and that it was not uncommon for convention attendees to get sick. I was so far under the weather I'd have had to climb up to feel lousy, but it passed with a night's sleep. Disappointing that it was the perfect day for my memorial walk or bike ride, and I had to miss that.

Which left Tuesday for an adventure with Coco!

Using the power of the Nexus pass and our as yet still-friendly nearby border crossing, we headed up to Vancouver to visit a Value Village; the IKEA (to try the Swedish Veggie balls)...
 

... another Value Village; a comic book store; the beach; a game store; and what may be the finest vegetarian restaurant in North America, The Acorn. A fantastic day that won/t be beat for a long time.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were spent on college business in Longview, Washington. The less said about that the better, but oy vey was it depressing.

And Saturday capped off the revels with a party attended by friends I have known for up to 35 years and friends I have met since moving to Bellingham two years ago. It made me feel all George Bailey, really.

I have been told that at 60 I am now officially distinguished. I don't know about that, but I did get a senior discount at Value Village, so that's something. All in all, I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of this stuff called living. So here's to another 60 years of maybe getting it right - I promised Coco.

Don't get all hung up about it

So, the moving-in process is still going on, but I can say that we have the closets arranged and most of our clothes are where they will stay for the duration. Both Coco and I purged a lot of stuff in the transition, and we're storing things a little differently than we used by re-purposing some of the of our furniture, and I'd guess that we are folding more clothes and hanging fewer. As a result, we have wound up with a few clothes hangers left over.

There were three white mini-hangers, for delicate stuff...

and four white heavy-duty hangers, for pants or jackets...

...and six fancy white plastic skirt hangers with clips...

...and 17 standard white pastic hangers...
 

...adn another 26 black ones...

...and a whole pile of them in various colors.

There were five suit hangers, both wooden and plastic...

..and six of those fancy wooden pants hangers...

...and three of those crappy clear plastic  kind...

...and this doohickey for neckties.

So the question is: WTF?  Did we actually have a bunch of extra hangers that we didn't notice? Did the hangers reproduce in response to the stress of moving? Or did we really shift over 100 garments, either getting rid of them or storing them differently? And if that last circumstance is the case, how did we wind up with so many extra clothes? And why were we hanging them all up in the first place?

Of course, this whole affair also raises the question of what to do with these. I wouldn't imagine that we'll need more than ten percent of this surplus, and that leaves a lot of hangers to dispose over. I'm not sure even Value Village could absorb this donation - we might have to drive around tossing bundles into Goodwill and St. Vincent de Paul as well. I am half-tempted to throw them in a barrel with all our outdated pharmaceuticals, set it on fire, and electrocute it, hoping to create a new polymer-based life form, but even if that worked, it would probably get loose and eat Fairhaven, and we all know where that would lead.

In the meantime, if y'all need any hangers, let me know, and I can hook you up. First one's free.