With temperatures hitting -21°F (-29°C), our building’s heat failed. My smart home setup let me manage this from afar. I watched the temperature drop and ran ceiling fans and the AC blower to circulate air. The thermostat remained “on,” so glycol stayed moving through the radiators to prevent frozen pipes. There wasn’t anything more I could’ve done in person. After a few hours, the heat is finally back on and the plants look OK.
Category: Living
Woke up in a magical place
Today is a rest day before we start our big hike tomorrow. Woke up to this view from our hotel room. First order of business: freshly baked meat pies for breakfast at a spot we scouted yesterday. Next, we took a beautiful hike above Queen Charlotte Sound, covering almost as much ground as we will tomorrow: we always seem to hike on our “rest” days. A late pub lunch quickly revived us.
A long way from Minneapolis
It’s been quite a journey, over 8,000 miles in total, capped off by a turboprop flight into Marlborough wine country. From there, we took a cab to Picton on the Marlborough Sounds. We’ll relax here for two nights before catching a boat to the start of our multi-day, inn-to-inn hike.
In the in-between
Found a fine spot between flights at LAX for refreshments. The glass wall is open at the top, so we get doses of fresh air and whiffs of aviation fuel. Our flight leaves tonight (Tuesday) and touches down in Auckland on Thursday morning.
-8⁰F
Woke up to -8⁰F (-22⁰C), a good day to stay in and check in for tomorrow’s flights to a warmer place. While I watched a Japanese drama series on an exercycle, Dwight hit a treadmill with a podcast. We’ve truly tipped the fridge now: dinner tonight is Leftover-Sausage-Saturday Musubi™.
Dinner and hard truths
Snowy walk to meet friends for a “modern take on authentic Mexican food.” Because people are afraid to go out lately, the restaurant has had to shorten its hours. We received great service from our server, and we chatted at the end of our meal. She shared her well-founded fear of being dragged off by ICE goons on her way from work because of the color of her skin, despite being an American-born citizen.
Extreme cold and extremist provocation
There are two reasons to stay inside today: first, it’s freezing; second, Proud Boys and other wannabes have come in from out of state to march through Downtown and harass the Somali-American community in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. Since some ICE goons are known to be Proud Boys, we can only hope they’re busy marching rather than abducting brown people.
How to shorten a tree… from the bottom
Dwight just posted about a tree he worked on at the university greenhouse where he volunteers. It was pushing against the roof, so it had to be shortened. They actually shortened the trunk itself, which I find amazing. Click through for a link to the post.
Curved steel and high rails
Our closest river crossing, Bridge Number 9, reopened today, so we went for a walk. It gives us a straight (well, curved) shot to the University’s East Bank and medical campus. The new railings are now well above a cyclist’s center of gravity and serve as a suicide deterrent.
This is not normal
We heard stun grenades in the distance as we lay in bed last night: ICE was showing their displeasure with citizens exercising their constitutional rights. At school this morning, a guard station had been set up to prevent goons from entering the building. We kept the classroom door locked. Some learners opted to join the classes remotely. As I left the building, a helicopter was circling just a few blocks away.