We broke the planet

6FPS V5#8: August, 14 2023

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I normally avoid talking about politics, preferring to keep this thing lighter and more positive/hopefule. But, this month, there’s are a couple of topics I really felt I needed to touch on. For those who prefer not to read that stuff, I well understand, so I wanted to put in a warning here at the start.

Welcome to the new issue of 6FPS.

So, I’ve been gainfully unemployed for a month how. How’s it feel?

I think I could get used to it. I made a decision to consciously take it easy to start, not just go jumping off into something else, and I ended up spending a good chunk of July catching up on podcasts, YouTube and playing Diablo IV (which I’m rather enjoying), and not worrying about it until the itch to do things started to hit.

Which it did towards the end of July, about a week after I sort of figured it might. Call it a staycation, maybe, but unplugging and letting the batteries recharge is rarely a bad call.

I did get out to Poulsbo just to wander the main street and explore with the camera, coming back with a few nice, but not astounding shots. I’ll be doing more of that in August and into fall — the reality is the light in Summer is rarely great, and it’s traditionally my slowest time for photography every year.

Here at the house, nesting season is winding down. We have many (many many!) Juncos growing into their adult plumage, and had a solid year in terms of species nesting and bringing up young. Due to the ongoing issues with the bear wanting to eat the feeders, I haven’t been hanging out feeders as much as last year, and having to be honest paying quite as close attention, but overall, it feels close to last year in terms of nesting, although both Chickadee species took off at the beginning of breeding season and we didn’t see them again until the last week or so. Both species have now showed up at the feeders, which makes me feel they’re done raising young and dispersed out from their nests again.

Other confirmed successful breeders include Mourning Doves (still at it, too), a pair of ravens, American Robins, the Spotted Towhees, Purple Finches and American Goldfinches. We’re pretty sure the Pileated’s did as well, but since we haven’t been feeding suet, they haven’t been visiting the feeders — unfortunately, the suet is a concentrated calorie bomb the bear loves, too.

Laurie’s garden is doing well, and the new fence has limited access by critters. So far the bear hasn’t bothered, and the deer have stayed out, but are around, and the raccoons simply seem too lazy to climb. . The squirrels, of course, are being squirrels. We’ve started another project, where we’re working with a group to install a water feature, both as a source of relaxing sound and enjoyment and as a drinking feature for the birds and critters. More about that once it’s in and running. I’ve also initiated a project to add sprinklers to the bed outside my office, and once that’s in I’ll have it scraped clean and planted fresh. We also have bought a few hundred daffodil and tulip bulbs which our landscapers will plant this fall, and hopefully, next spring that’ll be really nice. The landscape work we’re doing is mostly tweaking, but I’m really liking how it’s coming together.

Donating Blood

This last week was my latest visit to donate blood. It’s something I started with the pandemic as something I COULD do, and after moving here to Washington, I continued it. They let me know that with this latest donation I’ve hit the one gallon mark. I was just short of that down in San Jose, so I’m close to two gallons donated since I started.

It takes me about an hour every eight weeks, and it’s once of those small ways you can make a difference to people’s lives, so I’m happy to keep doing it. If you can, and I realize there are many reasons (physical and political) why many of us can’t, I strongly suggest finding your local donation center and trying it at least once.

Moving into Fall

One big difference here in Washington compared to Silicon Valley is how quickly the light changes. We hit summer solstice and the longest day of the year, and here we are a few weeks later and we’ve already lost over 30 minutes of daytime as we shift back towards fall and winter. At some level I’m fascinated with the speed of the change, and it hasn’t yet become routine for me.

I’m hoping to do some travel this fall, nothing too significant. I’ve been thinking about what I want to do, and the one I’m leaning towards is to head out to Leavenworth and then through Pendleton to look around the eastern part of the state a bit, and then work back along the Columbia River along historic 84 and then back up through Ridgefield and Kalama. About a week, I think, but nothing is final. Laurie and I are also talking about a trip up to Victoria, maybe in the early spring, but again, really preliminary.

Overall, it’s kind of quiet right now, by choice, which is nice. I do miss my old co-workers, I don’t miss my daily 8:30AM standup or being tied to the computer all day. I have kicked off a couple of projects: I am finally taking a class in Fusion 360, as I realized that was one of those things I felt I needed for the work I want to do in the shop (and yet didn’t want to commit the time to properly, giving me reasons to just defer it all). I’ve puttered in the shop a bit, but mostly, I need to just commit a week to spending a couple of hours every day to it to get it moving forward again.

I’ve also been experimenting with a new setup for the wallpaper page, which I think I’m going to implement but which isn’t ready to show off yet. Maybe next month; we’ll see.

But mostly, I’m enjoying being at loose ends and not putting myself under pressure to make stuff happen yet. But I know myself well enough I’ll only enjoy that so long, and then I’ll be ready and looking for projects to fill up the time.

But there’s no reason to hurry that.

Free Prints to Subscribers

Anyone who’s interested in a free 8x10 print of one of my images si welcome to it. All you need to do is check out the images in one of the four portfolio galleries on my photography page, and then send me an email with the request, including the title of the image (or URL to the image), your name and a mailing address. My only requirement is that the email the request comes from must be a subscriber to 6FPS when I get the request. I will mail these out at no charge worldwide for any request I get during November, as quickly as I can make the prints and get them packaged up.

And with that, see you next issue!

We Broke the Planet

It’s becoming impossible to pretend otherwise: we’ve broken the planet. Mostly through neglect and for short-term profits. Yay us. But, July 2023 was the hottest month on record ever. Phoenix was over 110F for 31 days straight. Bird flu is doing things it’s never done before: and is becoming endemic, not seasonal. The Pacific Northwest has been invaded by a huge blob of hot water. And the rate of change into what the U.N. has started calling global boiling is accelerating.

Yeah.

So, now what?

I don’t know. Personally, I continue to try to do things in small ways, but my impact is beyond limited. It’s more about trying to protect the things that matter most to me as long as we can protect them.

At the governmental level, we’ve talked and denied our way into the crisis nobody wanted to commit to grappling with. Now, it seems we’re into “limit the impact” vs “prevent” mode. And even at that, there’s still a lot of push back about actually doing anything significant.

Given the heat we’re seeing across many parts of the globe (how long will areas like Phoenix be habitable at all, given the increasing water and heat issues that region is having to deal with?) — and this is starting to impact many aspects of life. India, in an attempt to protect it’s own people’s food sources, has banned rice exports. Crops are failing. Forests are burning. The oceans are heating up and we’re seeing food sources there (like crabs) move, or simply fail.

These aren’t things that we can fix easily or overnight — if at all. It is as if the planet is running a fever, trying to kill off an infection that has impacted it badly enough it’s willing to risk killing itself to try to kill off the infection first. That is, perhaps, a metaphor the human race should ponder for a while (but won’t).

Tobis Buckell wrote a very interesting (but scary) set of two books called Arctic Rising and Hurricane Fever, which has stayed with me since, and which is proving to be rather prescient, and which I recommend to you as a way to get a sense of what our future is going to be.

Back when I was about 16, I sat down and had a chat with my mother where I told her I did not plan to have any children. This did not please her, because as she liked to remind me almost until the day she died, the one thing she really wanted was grandchildren to dote on (and both I and my sister failed her miserably on that, although we finally suggested she find a friend’s kid and “adopt” it, which she did and spoiled him happily).

My decision to not have kids never wavered, but I look at the state of the planet today, and I’m happy that I will never have to sit down and have the talk with them and try to explain why our generations left them this disaster as the legacy for their future. I don’t envy anyone who choose to bring kids into today’s world, given the mess we’re leaving them.

I write this for two reasons: one is because I feel we’re at that point where we all collectively have to stop pretending this isn’t happening, and I wanted to be explicit and say that. The other? I’m trying to look for ways where I can maybe made some impact or have some useful influence beyond what I’m currently doing, and I’m not sure what those might be. So I’m interested in your thoughts about places I can apply some of me (checks, sweat equity, etc) that might actually help, even in small ways. What could I possibly start doing that might actually change the momentum on this, if not on a global basis, regionally or local?

I’m curious your thoughts about this.

For Your Considerations

Birds and Birding

Photography

Science and Technology

Interesting Stuff

And with that, I'll see you in the next issue. I'd love feedback on this, what you like, what you want more of, what you want less of. And if you have something interesting you think I might want to talk about, please pass it along. Until then, take care, and have fun.

Chuq

6FPS (Six Frames Per Second) is a newsletter of interesting things and commentary from Chuq Von Rospach (chuqvr@gmail.com).

Coming out monthly on the 2nd Monday of the month, I will place in your inbox a few things I hope will inform and delight you. There is too much mediocre, forgettable stuff attacking your eyeballs every day you're online; this is my little way to help you cut through the noise to some interesting things you might otherwise not find.

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