Occupation of Independence

People like to complain about the weather.  They should try living without it. That's right, no weather.  In the inland Northwest, I haven't had any weather since the dry season started in late June.  In other words, one day has been like the next for 3 months.  But I am not complaining.  By camping above 5000 feet of altitude, mid-day temperatures never got over 90 F, and the horrid smoke and fire season held off to the first of September. And recently, this happened: Just imagine the feeling of relief, the sheer bounteousness of walking outdoors without a wide-brim sombrero! And then it did the unthinkable: it rained hard that night.  (But not so hard as to produce puddles on the ground, of course.) Meanwhile, people who stayed in the Southwest, had a glorious monsoon season. People like to gush over tourist scenery, that is, the freakish, the vertical, and the red.  It doesn't matter to tourists that those features are utterly useless. I think clouds of the right type s

Her royal cuteness climbed 1600 feet yesterday on a bike ride.  I unsnapped her from the leash and off she went, wondering why I was so slow! There are pretty good products you can buy online to take your dog along on a bike ride.  But will they fit your bike?  Think of all the variations in bike geometries out there! But there is a trick: strapping on a small board to a straight section of your rear triangle.   Look at the rear triangle of my mountain bike: Attaching to my bike is not straightforward.  The rear axle proper is not available because of the special parts that go along with the Old Man Mountain rear rack. Notice the weird bend in the chainstay, the tube that  connects the rear axle to the crank area ("bottom bracket") of the bike.   But it doesn't matter because at least the seatstay is a straight tube.  (The seatstay is the tube that slants up from the rear axle towards the seat/saddle.) With a straight tube you can strap on a straight piece of wood. [1]  W

If you are one of those people who love having a dog along on your outdoor activities, this post may be useful to you, especially if you bike on dirt/gravel/two-track roads.  Most of this would also apply to riding on residential streets or off-street recreational trails. You could consider one of the products available these days. Do a search using words like "dog running with bicycle" on You Tube.  But it is hard to make such products fit a modern mountain bike, with a seat-dropper-post and through-axles. Hence this post. Dogs do become trained over time to run alongside a bike without getting into trouble.  This post is meant for a younger dog who still needs to get used to the idea. Always attach the dog on the right side (starboard) of the bike.  Keep the leash short -- which is a bit counter-intuitive.  Always attach the leash to a halter on the dog, not to a collar. If the dog was used to the idea, you could put a carabiner on the end of a standard 5' or 6' do

These are significant times.  It appears that a 500-year era of European ascendancy is coming to an end.  Perhaps this should not shock anyone.  Many other civilizations and cultures have had their time in the sun, and then fizzled out. When historians are writing about the European era, will they do as bad a job as they have with the decline of other civilizations?   Maybe it is not the historians' fault. After all, they work from documents, and maybe documents don't really contain the essence (zeitgeist, mindset, soul) of a civilization.  Therefore how can you explain 'what went wrong' with that civilization? But back to the 'Rise and Fall' of the European Age.  Imagine you lived in 1453 A.D. in Constantinople, and you witnessed the final end of the Roman Empire after a millennium of ups-and-downs -- mostly downs. Imagine a group of sages from around the world sitting down at a Turkish coffee shop to discuss the big picture.  At your table are a Chinese schola

People are talking about the Russkies taking their gloves off.  They could hit Ukrainian power grids, energy infrastructure, and railroad bridges.  I don't understand why they don't try harder to intercept NATO weapons.  Russian leaders certainly have a tough decision to make.  The counter-argument is that it is still a few months until mid-winter, when the energy shortages in Europe will bite hardest.  So why not just let "General Winter" do their fighting for them? There will be giant protest marches in Europe, people say. (There already have been.) So what?  You could argue that protests work in the favor of the intransigent political leaders of Europe, since they let the peasants blow off steam.  They make it look like Europe governments are listening to Rousseau's "General Will".  They legitimize the notion that the masses have a say in these 'model' democracies of Europe.  After the protests, nothing will change. Does 'democracy' m